Prof. Richard C. Taylor

Website: http://web.mac.com/mistertea/Research_and_Teaching/Research.html

MAILBOX: Coughlin Hall Rm. 132

TELEPHONE: 288-5649; FAX: 288-3010

EMAIL: mistertea@mac.com  or Richard.Taylor@Marquette.edu

OFFICE HOURS: Fridays 10 am - 1 pm and by appointment

APPOINTMENTS WEBSITE (for all my Fall 2008 courses): http://web.mac.com/mistertea/Philosophy_104%3A_Theory_of_Ethics/Appointments.html

COURSE WEBSITE: http://web.me.com/mistertea/Medieval_Islamic_Philosophy/Welcome.html

CLASSROOM: Wehr Physics 154, 2:25-3:40

TURNITIN.COM: Class ID: 2360181.  Password: mistertea.

ARES Marquette Raynor Library Reserves password: mistertea

Brief Course Description:       Phil. 214. Medieval Islamic Thought

This course in Medieval Islamic Philosophical Thought is a graduate level introduction to the philosophical thought of a culture which is at once starkly different from Western Christian culture and at the same time steeped in the same religious (Abrahamic) and philosophical (Greek) traditions as traditional Western thought. The primary focus of the course will be on the major thinkers of the Classical Rationalist tradition in the Islamic intellectual milieu, though consideration will also be give to doctrines and thinkers of the Post-Classical period. The course consists of lectures and discussion of the Greek philosophical and Islamic theological background and of the major philosophical figures (al-Kindi, al-Fârâbî, Ibn Sina [Avicenna], al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd [Averroes], et alii).  Frequent specific reference will be made to the influence of Arabic / Islamic philosophy on the Latin West as evident in the work of Aquinas, for example, as well as to Greek thought foundational for the Arabic / Islamic tradition. Among the topics discussed will be: the development of the doctrine of essence and existence; conceptions of being and God; philosophical psychology and the nature of intellectual activities; the relationship of philosophy and religion and the attendant problem of religious language and its meaning; theories of political philosophy.

Grading will be based on student participation in classroom discussion, a course paper of ca. 20+ pp. developed from seminars, and two exams with possible essay questions distributed in advance.