Why Humans Refrain from Lying: A Critical Edition of al-Ḥasan al-Raṣṣāṣ’s al-ʿAshr al-fawāʾid al-lāzima ʿan ṣīghat dalīl wāḥid

Abstract

This article offers a critical edition of al-Ḥasan al-Raṣṣāṣ’s al-ʿAshr al-fawāʾid al-lāzima ʿan ṣīghat dalīl wāḥid. In this text, al-Raṣṣāṣ establishes ten premisses to prove that humans will always say the truth if lying yields no greater benefit for them. We suggest that al-ʿAshr al-fawāʾid was written in reaction to a section of Mānkdīm Shashdīw’s Taʿlīq Sharḥ al-uṣūl al-khamsa: Mānkdīm considers this proposition self-evident, whereas al-Raṣṣāṣ insists on the necessity of proving it rationally.