Two Roads to One Truth

Ibn Rushd, known in Latin as Averroes, was a judge and philosopher in twelfth-century Andalusia. He defended philosophy against critics such as al-Ghazali, in a book often titled The Incoherence of the Incoherence.

In his Decisive Treatise he argued that truth does not oppose truth. If a demonstrated result of reason seems to clash with a plain reading of scripture, then the text may call for a figurative reading, since scripture often speaks in images that ordinary readers can grasp.

He also thought that different readers need different methods, some using proof and others using rhetoric. The lasting question is how to hold two trusted sources together without forcing either, and when a reading has been strained too far.

The two maps

A town has two maps of the same river. One shows a bend near the mill, the other shows a straight line. A surveyor says one map must be wrong, but a clerk suggests that the second may be a diagram meant for sailors.

They check the scale and key of the second map and find that it marks only the channel. Both maps stand, each for its use, and the surveyor learns to ask what a source is for before calling it false.

Try this today Pick two things you trust that seem to conflict, and write one reading that would let both stand.