PHIL 281 - Philosophy in the Islamic World
"Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi on Currency of the Republic of Kazakhstan" by National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan (banknote), Omer Yalcinkaya (photo), 1999.
Instructor: Nabeel Hamid
Tuesday and Thursday, 8:45 to 10 a.m. Fall 2023
This course will focus on the classical period of philosophy in the Islamic world, roughly between 800-1200 CE. After briefly setting the historical context of the rise of Islamic civilization from the 7th to the 9th centuries CE, we will examine the philosophical response in the medieval Islamicate world to the intellectual challenges arising both from scriptural sources and from the inheritance of Hellenistic learning.
Key figures studied in this course will include al-Farabi, ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, and ibn Rushd, but we will also look at less familiar authors such as al-Kindi, al-Razi, Abu Bishr Matta, and Yahya ibn Adi.
The thematic emphasis of the course will be on metaphysics, epistemology, logic, the philosophy of nature, and the relation between faith and reason.