Philosophy in the Lands of Islam Fall 2015

A course in 13 weeks

Prof. Richard C. Taylor

Directed Reading Course Syllabus

(under development)

CAP: Classical Arabic Philosophy. An Anthology of Sources, Jon McGinnis and David C. Reisman, tr. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007)

CCAP: The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Also available in Turkish translation: Islam Felsefesine Giris, M. Cüneyt Kaya, tr. (Istanbul 2007).

SEP: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, online resource at http://plato.stanford.edu/index.html.

RCIP: Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy, R. C. Taylor & L. X. López=-Farjeat, eds. Available online via Marquette’s library link Marqcat.

HoP: Selections of Peter Adamson’s podcast lectures ## 120-195 on philosophy in the Islamic world available at Adamson podcasts: http://www.historyofphilosophy.net .

Also see the 11 lecture series Philosophy in the Lands of Islam organized by Thérèse-Anne Druart at The Catholic University of America in 2013 at

http://philosophy.cua.edu/fall2013lectures.cfm

#1: 2 Sept 15: Overview Discussion of Course Structure; Bibliographies (Daiber & Druart); and Discussion of Early Islam and Kalām

∙ Recordings to be viewed or heard before class meeting on 2 Sept 15:

Empire of Faith 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF6VPZsHDZQ

Empire of Faith 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_mqO910jUQ

Empire of Faith 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRMqZrjGNd8.

A DVD is available at MU Raynor Library: BP50 .I846 2004.

Resources re. Empire of Faith see https://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/

Also see “Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain” DVD available at MU Raynor Library: DP101 .C585 2007.

HoP #120: The Straight Path: Philosophy in the Islamic World; #121 This is a test: the Mu‘tazilites

Readings to be prepared before class meeting on 2 Sept 15:

∙ Khalid Blankenship, “The Early Creed,” in The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology, Tim Winter, ed. (Cambridge: CUP 2008) Available via Marqcat.

∙ Schmidtke, Sabine, “Theological Rationalism in the Medieval World of Islam,”  in Al-‘Uṣūr al-Wusṭā 20 (2008) available at

https://www.academia.edu/406217/_Theological_Rationalism_in_the_Medieval_World_of_Islam_

∙ Holtzman, Livnat, “Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal,” EI3 available via BrillOnline Reference Works, by Marqcat search under Encyclopedia of Islam: http://libus.csd.mu.edu/search~S1?/tEncyclopedia+of+Islam/tencyclopedia+of+islam/1%2C7%2C9%2CB/frameset&FF=tencyclopedia+of+islam+online&1%2C1%2C

∙ Terms “Mu‘tazili,” “Theology,” “Tawhid,” “Wahabi,” “Philosophy,” in Oxford Islamic Studies Online available via Marqcat: http://libus.csd.mu.edu/search~S1/?searchtype=t&searcharg=Oxford+Islamic+Studies+Online&searchscope=1&SORT=R&extended=0&SUBMIT=Search&searchlimits=&searchorigarg=tEncyclopedia+of+Islam

∙ Frank, Richard M., “The Science of Kalām,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 2 (1992) 7-37.

∙ Gutas, Dimitri, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture (London & NY: Routledge, 1998). Online version available via Marqcat: http://libus.csd.mu.edu/search~S1/?searchtype=t&searcharg=Greek+Thought%2C+Arabic+Culture&searchscope=1&SORT=R&extended=0&SUBMIT=Search&searchlimits=&searchorigarg=tOxford+Islamic+Studies+Online

Recommended:

∙ Ward Gywn, “Reasoning in the Qur’ān,” RCIP

∙ Al-Attar, “The Ethics and Metaphysics of Divine Command Theory,” RCIP

∙ Nanji, “Human Reason in Islamic Theology,” RCIP

∙ Daiber, Hans,  Islamic Thought in the Dialogue of Cultures. A Historical and Bibliographical Survey (Leiden: Brill, 2012) available at MU library at

http://libus.csd.mu.edu/search~S1?/aDaiber,+Hans/adaiber+hans/1%2C2%2C9%2CB/frameset&FF=adaiber+hans+1942&4%2C%2C8

∙ Gutas, Dimitri, “The Logic of Theology (Kalām) in Avicenna,” in  Logik und Theologie- Das Organon im arabischen und im lateinischen Mittelalter, Perler & Rudolf eds. 2005.

Recommended Podcasts at Peter Adamson’s “History of Philosophy without any gaps” site: 120-123

Discussion questions:

What kind of thing is kalām? What has it traditionally been held to be? How does it relate to falsafa / philosophy? 

Now for a more complex question: Given modern attacks on philosophical demonstration and its requirements (particularly the requirement that premisses must be necessarily true), it would seem that premisses of philosophical demonstration and assumptions of kalām arguments are not all that different with regard to truth value. Is this the case or does philosophy in fact have access to real necessary truths while kalām does not?

Regarding a posteriori necessity, see http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rigid-designators/#PhiWorForRig

and  G. W. Fitch, “Are There Necessary ‘a posteriori’ Truths? Philosophical Studies 30 (1976) 243-247.

# & #3: 2:  9 & 16 Sept 15: Writings of the Circle of al-Kindi I: The Plotiniana Arabica & the Theology of Aristotle

Extended class on 16 Sept 3:00 - 6:00 pm on 16 Sept. (No class on 9 Sept.)

∙ HoP: #122 Founded in Translation: From Greek to Syriac and Arabic.

Readings to be prepared before class meeting on 16 Sept 15:

Primary sources:

∙ The Theology of Aristotle & other Plotiniana Arabica (Letter on Divine Knowledge & Sayings of the Greek Wiseman) in English translation in PLOTINI OPERA. Tomus II: Enneades IV-V. Paul Henry et Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer, ed.. Plotiniana arabica ad codicum fidem anglice vertit Geoffrey Lewis. Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1959

Secondary sources:

∙  Adamson, Peter, “The Theology of Aristotle” in SEP

∙ D’Ancona, Cristina, “Greek Sources in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy,” SEP

∙ . . . . “Greek into Arabic: Neoplatonism in Translation,” CCAP

∙  D'Ancona, C., “Platonic and Neoplatonic Terminology for Being in Arabic Translation,” Studia graeco-arabica 1 / 2011 (http://www.greekintoarabic.eu/uploads/media/Dancona_SGA_I.pdf)

∙  Endress, G., “The Circle of al-Kindi,” in The Ancient Tradition in Christian and Islamic Hellenism, G. Endress and R. Kruk, eds. (Leiden: Research School, 1997), pp. 43-76.

∙  Taylor, R., Video lecture on pre-Avicennian philosophy (2011):

Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Plotiniana Arabica

Recommended:

∙  Adamson, Peter, The Arabic Plotinus: A Philosophical Study of the Theology of Aristotle (London: Duckworth, 2002).

∙  Aouad, Maroun, "La Theologie d'Aristote et autres textes du Plotinus Arabus," Dictionnaire des Philosophes Antiques, ed. Richard Goulet et al. (1989)

∙  Bertolacci, A., “Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics,” SEP

Recommended Podcasts at Peter Adamson’s “History of Philosophy without any gaps” site: 120-123

Assignments: 10 min student presentations on one of the following topics in the Theology of Aristotle: (i) soul, (ii) intellect, (iii) God / the One, (iv) creation.

#4: 23 Sept 15: Writings of the Circle of al-Kindi II: The Kalām fī maḥḍ al-khair (Discourse on the Pure Good, known in Latin translation as the Liber de causis)

Readings to be prepared before class meeting on 23 Sept 15:

Primary sources:

∙ English translation of the Discourse on the Pure Good

Secondary Sources:

∙ Taylor, “Primary and Secondary Causality,” RCIP

∙ Chase, “Creation in Islam from the Qur‘ān to al-Fārābī,” RCIP

∙ D'Ancona, Cristina, “The Origins of Islamic Philosophy,” Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity, Lloyd Gerson, ed. 2010 v. 2 869-893, 1170-1178

. . . . . , “The Liber de Causis”, in S. Gersh (ed.), Interpreting Proclus. From Antiquity to Renaissance, (Cambridge U.P., Cambridge 2014), 137-61.

∙ Taylor, R. C., “Primary Causality and ibdā‘ (creare) in the Liber de causis” Wahrheit und Geschichte. Die gebrochene Tradition metaphyischen Denkens. Festschrift zum 7-. Geburtstag von Günther Mensching, Alia Mensching-Estakhr and Michael Städtler, hrsg. (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2012), 115-136.

Recommended:

∙ D’Ancona, Cristina, Recherches sur le Liber de causis (Paris: Vrin, 1995)

. . . . . & R. C. Taylor, “Le Liber de causis,” in: Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques, suppl. vol., Richard Goulet et al. ed. CNRS, Paris 2003, pp. 599-647

∙ Taylor, R. C., “Aquinas, the Plotiniana Arabica, and the Metaphysics of Being and Actuality,” Journal of the History of Ideas 59 (1998) pp. 217-239.

∙ . . . . . , Video lecture: Kalam fi mahd al-khair / Liber de causis

∙ Zimmerman, Brandon, “Does Plotinus Present a Metaphysics of Creation? The Review of Metaphysics 67 (2013) 55-105, available via Marqcat.

Recommended Podcasts at Peter Adamson’s “History of Philosophy without any gaps” site: 120-123

Assignments: (i) How does D’Ancona argue for a central place for the Arabic Liber de causis in the history of Islamic Philosophy? (ii) What is the nature of creation (ibḍā‘) in the Arabic Liber de causis? (iii) Provide an analysis of the article, “Creation in Islam from the Qur‘ān to al-Fārābī,” RCIP. (iv) What is the doctrine of Divine will in the Plotiniana Arabica and the Liber de causis and what is its philosophical significance?

#5: 30 Sept 15: al-Kindī (d. after 866 CE)

HoP #123 Philosopher of the Arabs: al-Kindī

Readings to be prepared before class meeting on 30 Sept 15:

Primary sources:

∙ al-Kindi, On First Philosophy, selections from Al-Kindi's Metaphysics, A. Ivry, tr. (Albandy: SUNY Press, 1974).

∙ . . . . . , “On the True Agent,” in The Philosophical Works of al-Kindi, Peter Adamson and Peter E. Pormann, tr. (Oxford: OUP, 2012), pp. 73-75. Also available in translation by McGinnis and Reisman in CAP, 22-23 and in Isaac Israeli. A Neoplatonic Philosophy in the Early 10th Century, by A. Altmann and S. M. Stern (Oxford: OUP, 1958), 68-69.

∙ . . . . . , “On the Intellect,” in CAP 16-18.

Secondary Sources:

∙ Adamson, Peter, “al-Kindi,” SEP

∙ Endress, G., “Building the Library of Arabic Philosophy. Platonism and Aristotelianism in the Sources of al-Kindī,” in The Libaries of the Neoplatonists, C. D’Ancona, ed. (Leiden: Brill 2007), 319-350.

∙ Adamson, Peter, “The Kindian Tradition. The Structure of Philosophy in Arabic Neoplatonism,” in The Libraries of the Neoplatonists, C. D’Ancona, ed. (Leiden: Brill 2007), 351-370.

Recommended:

∙ Adamson, Peter, al-Kindi (Oxford: OUP, 2006)

∙ . . . . ., “Al-Kindi and the Mu‘tazila: Divine Attributes, Creation and Freedom,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 13 (2003) 45-77.

∙ Janssens, J., “Al-Kindī's Concept of God”, Ultimate Reality and Meaning, 17 (1994) 4–16.

∙ . . . . ., “Al-Kindī: The Founder of Philosophical Exegesis of the Qurʼān”, Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 9 (2007) 1–21.

∙ The Philosophical Works of al-Kindi, Peter Adamson and Peter E. Pormann, tr. (Oxford: OUP, 2012)

Recommended Podcasts at Peter Adamson’s “History of Philosophy without any gaps” site: 120-123.

Assignments: (i) Compare the LDC ch. 1 and al-Kindi’s “The Agent in the proper sense . . . .” (ii) What is al-Kindi’s understanding of creation?; (iii) Is the world eternal or created in time for al-Kindi? (iv) Is al-Kindi’s understanding of soul and intellect Platonic or Aristotelian?

#6: 7 & 14 October 15: al-Fārābi (d. 950 CE), metaphysics & epistemology

Extended class on 14 October 3:00 - 6:00 pm (No class 7 October.)

(no class meeting on 7 October)

∙ HoP ## 128-130

Readings to be prepared before class meeting on 14 Oct 15:

Primary sources

∙ Al-Farabi, On the Intellect in CAP, pp. 68-78.

∙ . . . . . , “Intentions of Aristotle's Metaphysics,” D. Gutas tr.,  in Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 1988), pp. 240-242

∙ . . . . . ,”The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato the Divine and Aristotle,” in Alfarabi. The Political Writings, Volume I. Ch. Butterworth, tr. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp. 123-167.

Selections from:

∙ . . . . . , The Perfect State in Al-Farabi on the Perfect State, R. Walzer, tr. (Oxford & New York: Clarendon Press, 1985).

∙ . . . . . , Political Regime in Alfarabi. The Political Writings, Volume II. Ch. Butterworth, tr. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015), pp. 29-94.

Secondary sources

∙ Bertolacci, A., “Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics,” SEP

∙ Druart, Th,-A., “Metaphysics,” in CCAP

∙ Ivry, A., “Arabic and Islamic Psychology and Philosophy of Mind,” SEP

∙ Janos, D., “Al-Farabi, Creation ex nihilo, and the Cosmological Doctrine of K. al-Jam‘ and Jawābāt,”  Journal of the American Oriental Society 129 (2009) 1-71.

∙ Martini Bonadeo, C., video lecture: “The Debated Question of al-Farabi’s Authorship of Harmony of Platon and Aristotle. A Question of Method” at http://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/The_Abrahamic_Traditions/2014_Summer_Conference_Milwaukee.html.

Recommended:

∙ Menn, S., “Al-Farabi’s Kitab al-Huruf and His Analysis of the Senses of Being,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 18 (2008) 59-97.

∙ Taylor, R. C.,  “The Epistemology of Abstraction,” RCIP

∙  . . . . , video 1 of 2 on al-Farabi, Intellect, Abstraction and Substantial Transformation

∙  . . . . , video 2 of 2 on al-Farabi, Intellect, Abstraction and Substantial Transformation

∙  . . . . , video lecture Aristotle’s Metaphysics and al-Farabi’s On the Perfect State

∙ Vallat, Ph.,  Farabi et l’école d’Alexandrie (Paris: Vrin, 2004)

∙ . . . . . video lecture “The Doctrine of the Two Entelechies of the Soul from Aristotle to Farabi: a First Inquiry” at http://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/The_Abrahamic_Traditions/2014_Summer_Conference_Milwaukee.html

Assignments: (i) Is first philosophy or metaphysics theology or ontology according to al-Farabi? MARK SCHULZ (ii) What is al-Farabi’s teaching on the originative foundation of the universe? NICK OSCHMAN (iii) Explain the doctrine of intellectual abstraction in al-Farabi. BRETT YARDLEY (iv) Explain the views of al-Farabi on divine names and attributes. JACOB ANDREWS

#7: 21 October 15: Class on 21 October 3:00 - 5:00 pm (No class 28 October.)

3:30-4:30: al-Fārābi, political / religious philosophy.

Readings to be prepared before class meeting on 21 Oct 15:

Primary sources

1. • al-Farabi, "Attainment of Happiness," in Alfarabi: Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, M. Mahdi, tr. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp. 13-50.
   

2. •. . . . . ,  "Book of Religion," in Alfarabi. The Political Writings, Volume I. Ch. Butterworth, tr. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp. 91-113.
   

3. •Selections from:
   

∙ . . . . . , The Perfect State in Al-Farabi on the Perfect State, R. Walzer, tr. (Oxford & New York: Clarendon Press, 1985).

∙ . . . . . , Political Regime in Alfarabi. The Political Writings, Volume II. Ch. Butterworth, tr. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015), pp. 29-94.

Secondary sources

1. •Elhajibrahim, S., “Alfarabi's Concept of Happiness Sa'ada: Eudaimonia, The Good and Jihad Al-Nafs” available at http://www.lsu.edu/artsci/groups/voegelin/society/2006%20Papers/Samah%20Elhajibrahim.shtml
   

2. •Harvey, S., “Law and Society,” RCIP
   

3. •Vallat, Ph., “Principles of the Philosophy of State,” RCIP
   

Recommended

Taylor, R. C., video lecture from 2014: al-Farabi, “The Attainment of Happiness”

Recommended Podcasts at Peter Adamson’s “History of Philosophy without any gaps” site: 128-131.

Assignments: (i) What is the relationship of philosophy and religion according to al-Farabi? NICK(ii) What is happiness or even ultimate happiness for al-Farabi? BRETT

#8: 4:00-5:00 pm: Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037 CE) metaphysics

∙ HoP ##138-140

Primary sources

∙ Avicenna, Metaphysics 1. 4-8 in Avicenna. The Metaphysics of the Healing, M. E. Marmura, tr. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2005)

Secondary sources

∙ Gutas, Dimitri, “Avicenna’s Philosophical Project,” Interpreting Avicenna. Critical Essays, Peter Adamson, ed. (Cambridge: CUP, 2013) 48-70.

• Houser, R. E., “The Real Distinction and the Principles of Metaphysics,” in Laudemus viros gloriosus: Essays in Honor of Armand Maurer (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), pp. 75-108.

∙ Houser, R. E., “Essence and Existence in Ibn Sina,” RCIP

∙ Janssens, J., “Metaphysics of God,” RCIP

Recommended

∙ Bertolacci, “Establishing the Science of Metaphysics,” RCIP

∙ . . . . ., “‘Necessary’ as Primary Concept in Avicenna’s Metaphysics” in Conoscenza e contingenza nella tradizione aristotelica medievale, ed. G. Fioravanti, S. Perfetti, ETS, Pisa, 2008, pp. 31-50

∙ Taylor, R. C. , video lecture: Avicenna, Metaphysics, Book 1, ch. 5 ff.

Recommended Podcasts at Peter Adamson’s “History of Philosophy without any gaps” site: 138-142.

Assignments: (iii) How does Avicenna argue dialectically for the Necessary Being?  MARK (iv) What is the essence-existence distinction in Avicenna? JACOB

#9: 4 November 2015: Class on 4 November 15 3:00 - 4:00 pm (No class 11 November.)

Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037 CE) metaphysics, continued. 3:00-5:00 pm.

∙ HoP #142

Primary sources

∙ Avicenna, Metaphysics Book 8, ch. 5-7; (Book 6 recommended) Book 9, ch. 1-3 in Avicenna. The Metaphysics of the Healing, M. E. Marmura, tr. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2005)

Secondary sources

∙ Acar, Rahim, “Creation: Avicenna’s metaphysical account,” in Creation and the God of Abraham, D. B. Burrell, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 77-90.

∙ Adamson, Peter, “From the necessary existent to God,” in Interpreting Avicenna. Critical Essays, Peter Adamson, ed. (Cambridge: CUP, 2013) 170-189.

∙ Gutas, Dimitri, “The Logic of Theology (Kalām) in Avicenna,” in  Logik und Theologie- Das Organon im arabischen und im lateinischen Mittelalter, Perler & Rudolf eds. 2005.

∙ Lizzini, Olga, “A Mysterious Order of Possibles,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 88.2 (2014) 237-270.

Recommended

∙ Taylor, R. C., video lecture on Avicenna, Metaphysics book 6

∙ Taylor, R. C., video lecture on Avicenna, Metaphysics books 8 & 9

Recommended Podcasts at Peter Adamson’s “History of Philosophy without any gaps” site: 138-142.

Assignments: (i) How is the teaching of Avicenna like and unlike what we saw in our study of the Plotiniana Arabica and the Kalam fi mahd al-khair (Liber de causis)?” MARK (ii) Does Avicenna teach a doctrine of creatio ex nihilo? JACOB (iii)  Is emanation the same thing as creation in Avicenna? BRETT

#10: November 2015, 4:00-5 pm: Ibn Sīnā, psychology & political / religious philosophy

HoP #141

Primary sources

∙ Avicenna, On the Soul, selections, CAP, pp. 175-209

∙ . . . . . , Metaphysics 10.1-3, 10.5 in The Metaphysics of the Healing, M. E. Marmura, tr. (Provo, Utah: Brigham University Press, 2005).

∙ . . . . . , “On the Proof of Prophecies and the Interpretation of the Prophets’ Symbols and Metaphors,” M. E. Marmura, tr. in Medieval Political Philosophy, R. Lehner and M.Mahdi, eds. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 1986), pp. 112-

Secondary sources

∙ Black, D. L., “Soul and Intellect in Arabic Philosophy, CCAP, 308-326.

∙ De Smet. D. and Sebti, M., “Avicenna's Philosophical Approach to the Qur'an in light of his Tafsir Surat al-Iklas,” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 11 (2009) 134-148.

∙ Griffel, Frank, “Philosophy and Prophecy.” RCIP

∙ Hasse, Dag N., “Avicenna’s Epistemological Optimism,” in Interpeting Avicenna. Critical Essays, P. Adamson, ed. (Cambridge: CUP. 2013) pp. 109-119.

∙ Taylor, R. C.,  “The Epistemology of Abstraction,” RCIP

Recommended

∙ Marmura, M. E., “Avicenna and Traditional Islamic Belief,” The Judeo-Christian-Islamic Heritage. Philosophical and Theological Perspectives, R. C. Taylor & I. A. Omar, eds. (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2012), 173-192.

∙ Taylor, R. C., two videos on Avicenna, The Rational Soul and Multiple Kinds of Abstractions: video 1 of 2    video 2 of 2

∙ . . . . . , video on Avicenna on happiness in Metaphysics Book 10.

Assignments: (iv) How are philosophy and religion related for Ibn Sina / Avicenna? NICK

#11: 18 November 2015: al-Ghazali and his critique of the falāsifa

HoP # 143-145

Primary sources

∙ al-Ghazali, “On showing their obfuscation in saying that God is the world's enactor and maker, that the world is His handiwork and act; showing that with them this is metaphor, not reality,” Third Discussion of the Tahafut al-Falāsifa,

in al-Ghazali. Incoherence of the Philosophers, M. E. Marmura, tr. (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1997), pp. 57-78.

Secondary sources

∙ Frank, R. M., “Al-Ghazali on Taqlīd. Scholars, Theologians and Philosophers,” Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften 7 (1991-92), 207-52.

∙ Griffel, F., “al-Ghazali,” in SEP.

Recommended

∙ al-Ghazali, “Deliverance from Error” (Munqidh min al-dalal) in R.J. McCarthy, Freedom and fulfillment (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980)

∙ Griffel, F., “Taqlīd of the Philosophers: al-Ghazālī’s Initial Accusation in the Tahāfut,” in Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal, ed. S. Günther (Leiden: Brill, 2005), pp. 273-296.

Assignments: (i) What is Avicenna’s teaching on Divine Will? MARK; (ii-iv) Explicate and evaluate the three aspects of the philosophers’ teachings according to al-Ghazali: First aspect: Brett; Second aspect NIck; Third aspect: Jacob.

25 November 15: no class for MU Thanksgiving break.

#12: 2 December 15: Class 3:00-5:00 pm

HoP # 151-152

1. (i)Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) method in philosophy and religion; introduction to psychology.
   

Primary sources

∙ Averroes, Faṣl al-maqāl or “The Decisive Treatise,” tr. Hourani, pp. 164-185.

Available at: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ir/fasl.htm.

∙ Averroes’ Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence), English tr. by S. Van Den Bergh (London 1954). Discussion Three.

Secondary sources

∙ Taylor,  R., “Averroes: Religious Dialectic and Aristotelian Philosophical Thought,” in CCAP, 180-200. (Available online at Marqcat.)

∙ . . . . . , “Ibn Rushd / Averroes and ‘Islamic’ Rationalism,” in Medieval Encounters. Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogue 15 (2009) [Special issue on Al-Andalus: Cultural Diffusion and Hybridity, ed. Ivry Corfis], 125-135. 

Recommended

Three video lectures:

lecture 1 (introduction to Ibn Rushd)   lecture 2 (Fasl al-maqal)  lecture 3 (Divine Will in the Incoherence of the Incoherence)

Assignments: (i) Three questions on philosophy and religion (Fasl al-maqal) BRETT ; (ii) Averroes in the Incoherence of the Incoherence on al-Ghazali’s Discussion Three, first part MARK; (iii) Averroes in the Incoherence of the Incoherence on al-Ghazali’s Discussion Three, second part NICK; (iv) Averroes in the Incoherence of the Incoherence on al-Ghazali’s Discussion Three, third part JACOB.

#13: 9 December 15: Class 3:00-5:00 pm FINAL CLASS MEETING

Ibn Rushd: psychology and metaphysics

Primary sources

∙ Ibn Rushd / Averroes, Selections from Averroes. Ibn Rushd’s Metaphysics. A Translation with Introduction of Ibn Rushd’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Book Lâm by Charles Genequand (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1984).

Secondary sources

∙ Taylor,  R., “Averroes: Religious Dialectic and Aristotelian Philosophical Thought,” in CCAP, pp.180-200.

∙ . . . . . , “ Averroes on Providence,” in Fate, Providence and Moral Responsibility in Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Thought. Collected Studies in Honour of Carlos Steel, Pieter d’Hoine and Gerd Van Riel, eds. (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, De Wulf – Mansion Centre, Series I), (Leuven: KUL University Press, 2014), pp. 454-472.

Recommended

Averroes (Ibn Rushd) of Cordoba. Long Commentary on the De Anima of Aristotle, Richard C. Taylor, trans. & intro., Therese-Anne Druart, subeditor.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

Three video lectures on metaphysics and theory of knowledge:

lecture 4 (creation and divine knowledge)   lecture 5 (Theories of Intellect and Intelligibles) 

Assignments: Mark, Brett, Nick, Jacob: I ask that each of you come to class with three questions on Ibn Rushd or related matters.