ABSTRACT
This section sets out some of the linguistic, religious, and philosophical background that provides a context for al-Ghazālī's specific way of linking ethics and aesthetics. As in ancient Greek, in Arabic the connection between ethics and aesthetics has a linguistic basis. Key Arabic terms for “beautiful” also translate as “good.” The substantive idea that human souls can be beautiful, and that moral virtue is one of the most important forms of beauty, was present in a number of ancient philosophical texts that were translated into Arabic. Two especially influential texts were Galen's Peri Ethon and the adaptation of Plotinus's Enneads.
