Islamic Philosophy

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

An introduction to some of the most important thinkers and issues in the Arabic-Islamic philosophical tradition. Some emphasis will be placed on the high classical period (9th to 12th centuries) (e.g., Ibn Sina [Avicenna], al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd [Averroes]), though we will also cover some significant post-classical, modern, and contemporary thought (e.g., jihad and feminism). Other broad topics to be addressed include the existence and attributes of God, the nature and order of the cosmos (including causality), human nature, the relation between religious revelation and philosophical reasoning, and the proper ethical ordering of human life and of the political state. We will discuss these ideas as they operate within the Islamic world and also how they interact with the Western philosophical tradition.