Lecturer: Peter Adamson
Time: Thursday, 11.00 - 12.30
Location:
Term 1: Seminar Room, Philosophy Department, KCL
Term 2: Basement Room 304, Philosophy Department, KCL
Course Aims
To give students an understanding of the historical development and philosophical interest of philosophy produced in the Arabic-speaking world, focusing on the time period from al-Kindi (9th century) to Averroes (12th century), which one might call the “classical” period of Arabic thought.
Course Objectives
Students who complete the course should have developed an understanding of the following issues in classical Arabic philosophy:
• The relation between philosophy and religion;
• The attitude taken towards Greek philosophical texts, especially Aristotle, by philosophers writing in Arabic;
• The problem of divine attributes;
• The eternity of the world;
• Philosophy of mind (i.e. theory of soul and intellect);
• Free will;
• Developments in Arabic Jewish and Christian philosophy, as well as Islamic;
• Students will also gain an awareness of some developments in the post-classical era, though this will not be the main focus of the course.
Seminars
The course will consist of 20 seminars, 10 in Term 1 and 10 in Term 2. Each seminar will last for one and a half hours, and combine lecture with discussions devoted to a close reading of a text (in English translation).
Readings
Many of the assigned primary texts are in J. McGinnis and D.C. Reisman (ed. and trans.), Classical Arabic Philosophy: an Anthology of Sources (Indianapolis: 2007). Referred to below as ‘Hackett reader.’ I suggest buying this book for the purposes of the course.
Further reading is indicated below in the syllabus and will be available in the library. Some articles will be available on reserve in the xerox library at KCL Philosophy Dept. These are marked below with an asterisk.
Other general works:
• P. Adamson and R.C. Taylor, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (CUP, 2005).
• M Campanini, A History of Islamic Philosophy (New York: 1983)
• M. Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy, (Columbia University Press, 1983).
• S H Nasr and O Leaman (eds), History of Islamic Philosophy (Routledge, 1995).
• There are also numerous relevant entries on the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Course of Lectures - Term 1
al-Kindi, Saadia and the Mu‘tazilites
Week 1: Arabic philosophy: an overview of the tradition.
Suggested reading: *G. Endress, “The Defense of Reason: the Plea for Philosophy in the Religious Community,” Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamische Wissenschaften 6 (1990), 1-49. For a combative view see D. Gutas, “The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Twentieth Century,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 29 (2002), 5-25.
Week 2: The translation movement and al-Kindi’s circle.
Primary text: excerpts from Arabic translations of Neoplatonic texts.
Suggested reading: For lectures 2, 4 and 5 see P. Adamson, Al-Kindi (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). See also *P. Adamson, “Al-Kindi and the Reception of Greek Philosophy,” in The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (see above), 32-51.
Week 3: The Mu‘tazilites.
Primary text: excerpts from reports on Mu‘tazilite views.
Suggested reading: *P. Adamson, “Al-Kindi and the Mu‘tazila: Divine Attributes, Creation and Freedom.” B. Abrahamov, Islamic Theology (Edinburgh: 1998). W. M. Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology (Edinburgh: 1962). J. van Ess, The Flowering of Muslim Theology (Cambridge, MA: 2006).
Week 4: Al-Kindi and Saadia on God.
Primary text: Excerpt from Saadia, Book of Doctrines and Beliefs.
Suggested reading: *P. Adamson, “Before Essence and Existence: al-Kindi’s Conception of Being”. *P. Adamson, “The Beginnings of Philosophy in the Middle Ages,” in The Blackwell History of Philosophy in the Middle Ages, ed. J. Inglis, D. Frank, and T. Kukkonen (forthcoming).
Week 5: Al-Kindi and Saadia on the eternity of the world.
Primary text: al-Kindi, On Divine Unity, in Hackett reader
Suggested reading: H.A. Davidson, “John Philoponus as a Source of Medieval, Islamic and Jewish Proofs of Creation,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 89 (1969), 357-391.
Tenth Century Philosophy
Week 6: The Baghdad school and the dispute over grammar and logic
Primary text: *D.S. Margouliath, “The Discussion Between Abu Bishr Matta and Abu Sa‘id al-Sirafi on the Merits of Logic and Grammar,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1905), 79-129.
Suggested reading: *M. Mahdi, “Language and Logic in Classical Islam,” in Logic in Classical Islamic Culture, ed. G.E. von Grunebaum (Wiesbaden: 1970), 51-83. *P. Adamson, “Knowledge of Universals and Particulars in the Baghdad School,” Documenti e Studi sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale 18 (2007), 141-64.
Week 7: Al-Farabi on philosophy and religion
Primary text: al-Farabi, Directing Attention to the Way to Happiness, in Hackett reader
Suggested reading: *“Al-Farabi,” in Encyclopaedia Iranica. D. Reisman, “Al-Farabi,” in The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Al-Farabi, Book of Religion, in C.E. Butterworth (trans.), Alfarabi: The Political Writings (Ithaca: 2001).
Week 8: Al-Farabi on the intellect
Primary text: al-Farabi, On the Intellect, in Hackett reader
Suggested reading: *T.-A. Druart, “Al-Farabi and Emanationism,” Studies in Medieval Philosophy, ed. J.F. Wippel (Washington DC: 1987), 23-43. *D. Black, “Knowledge (‘Ilm) and Certainty (Yaqin) in al-Farabi’s Epistemology,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 16 (2006), 11-45.
Week 9: Al-Farabi's cosmology
Primary text: Al-Razi, On the Five Eternals, in Hackett reader
Suggested reading: *T.-A. Druart, “Al-Razi’s Conception of the Soul: Psychological Background to his Ethics,” Medieval Philosophy and Theology 5 (1996), 245-263. L.E. Goodman, “Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-Razi,” in S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman (eds), History of Islamic Philosophy (London: Routledge, 1996), 198-215. M. Fakhry, “A Tenth Century Arabic Interpretation of Plato’s Cosmology,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 6 (1968), 15-22.
Week 10: Al-Razi on ethics and prophecy
Primary text: Al-Razi, The Philosopher’s Way of Life, in Hackett reader
Suggested Reading: *T.-A. Druart, “The Ethics of al-Razi,” Medieval Philosophy and Theology 5 (1997), 47-71. S. Stroumsa, Freethinkers of Medieval Islam (Leiden: 1999), ch.3. *P. Adamson, “Platonic Pleasures in Epicurus and al-Râzî,” in P. Adamson (ed.), In the Age of al-Farabi: Arabic Philosophy in the 4th/10th Century (London: 2008).
Course of Lectures: Term 2
Avicenna and al-Ghazali
Week 11: Avicenna on modality, essence and existence.
Primary text: *G.F. Hourani, “Ibn Sina on Necessary and Possible Existence,” has translations of several relevant passages.
Suggested reading: *F. Rahman, “Essence and Existence in Avicenna” Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies 4 (1958). R. Wisnovsky, “Avicenna and the Avicennan Tradition,” in The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.
Week 12: Avicenna’s proof of God’s existence.
Primary text: Avicenna, selection VIII from Hackett reader
Suggested reading: *T. Mayer, “Avicenna’s Burhan al-Siddiqin,” Journal of Islamic Studies 12 (2001), 18-39. *M. Marmura, “Avicenna’s Proof from Contingency for God’s Existence in the Metaphysics of the Shifa’,” Medieval Studies 42 (1980), 337-352.
Week 13: Avicenna’s epistemology.
Primary text: Avicenna, selection II and X from Hackett reader
Suggested reading: *P. Adamson, “On Knowledge of Particulars,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 105 (2005), 273-294. D. Hasse, “Avicenna on Abstraction,” in Aspects of Avicenna, ed. R. Wisnovksy, (Princeton: Markus Wiener, 2001), 39-72.
Week 14: Avicenna’s psychology.
Primary text: Avicenna, selection VI from Hackett reader
Suggested reading: *M. Marmura, “Avicenna’s ‘Flying Man’ in Context,” Monist 69 (1986). * T.-A. Druart, “The Human Soul’s Individuation and its Survival After the Body’s Death: Avicenna on the Causal Relation Between Body and Soul,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 10 (2000), 259-273. P. Adamson, “Correcting Plotinus: Soul’s Relationship to Body in Avicenna’s Commentary on the Theology of Aristotle,” in Philosophy, Science and Exegesis in Greek, Arabic and Latin Commentaries (London, 2004), vol. 2, 59-75.
Week 15: Al-Ghazali’s autobiography
Primary text: Al-Ghazali, Deliverer from Error (several translations available)
Suggested reading: M. Marmura, “Al-Ghazali,” in The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. *S. Menn, “The Discourse on the Method and the Tradition of Intellectual Autobiography,” in Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy, ed. J. Miller and B. Inwood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 141-91.
Ghazali, Averroes and Maimonides
Week 16: Averroes on religion and philosophy.
Primary text: Averroes, The Decisive Treatise, in Hackett reader
Suggested reading: *R.C. Taylor, “Truth Does Not Contradict Truth: Averroes and the Unity of Truth” Topoi 19 (2000), 3-16. R.C. Taylor, “Averroes: Religious Dialectic and Aristotelian Philosophical Thought,” in The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.
Week 17: Averroes against Ghazali, part one: causation.
Primary text: al-Ghazali, On Power, in Hackett reader
Suggested reading: *B. Dutton, “Al-Ghazali on Possibility and the Critique of Causality,” Medieval Philosophy and Theology 10 (2001), 23-46. *B. Kogan, “The Philosophers al-Ghazali and Averroes on Necessary Connection and the Problem of the Miraculous,” in Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism, ed. P. Morewedge (Delmar: 1981), 113-132.
Week 18: Averroes against Ghazali, part two: eternity of the world.
Primary text: Al-Ghazali, Incoherence of the Philosophers, 'First Discussion' in Hackett reader
Suggested reading: Al-Ghazali, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, translated by M. Marmura (Provo: 1997). *T. Kukkonen, “Possible Worlds in the Tahafut al-Tahafut : Averroes on Plenitude and Possibility,” and “Possible Worlds in the Tahafut al-Falasifa: al-Ghazali on Creation and Contingency,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 38 (2000), 329-348 and 479-502.
Week 19: Maimonides on divine attributes
Primary text: The Guide for the Perplexed
Suggested reading: For lectures 19 and 20, see H.A. Davidson, Moses Maimonides. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. K. Seeskin (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). On divine attributes, see A. Hyman, “Maimonides on Religious Language,” in J. Kraemer, Joel (ed.), Perspectives on Maimonides: Philosophical and Historical Studies (London: 1996), 175-91. Wolfson, H. A. “Maimonides on Negative Attributes,” in his Studies in the History of Philosophy and Religion (Cambridge: 1973), vol. II, pp. 195-230
Week 20: Maimonides on the eternity of the world
Primary text: The Guide for the Perplexed
Suggested reading: K. Seeskin, Maimonides on the Origin of the World (New York: 2005). *A. Hyman, “Maimonides on Creation and Emanation,” in Studies in Medieval Philosophy, ed. J. F. Wippel (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1988), 45–61.