The aim of this event is to rigorously explore the prospects of engaging the Islamic philosophical tradition and not merely from a historical or philological. To be specific, the objective of the conference is to philosophically examine, while scrupulously avoiding any lapses into anachronistic arguments, the methodological and discursive potential of the highly rich and tremendously understudied Islamic philosophical and rational tradition to respond to problems and impasses in modern and post-modern philosophical systems. We will have three major panels:
- Logic and Metaphysics
- Epistemology and Philosophical Anthropology
- Moral and Political Philosophy.
We will be sharing the program and the participants very soon.
For more information please see the ⟶ event page and flyer.
All are welcome to attend!
Organizers Professor Ahmed Abdel Meguid & M. Owais Khan (Ph.D. Candidate), would like to thank the Department of Religion for organizing, and the co-sponsoring Departments and Programs: History, Jewish Studies Program, Middle Eastern Studies Program, Political Science, Women’s and Gender Studies.
A Note on the design of the calligraphy:
The design is courtesy of Tarek Wagih Hamdy Cairo/London based designer and a friend of mine. The calligraphy is by the leading Egyptian calligrapher Seyyed al-Kumi. The Arabic text is a quote from the 17th century Persian philosopher Ṣadra ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shirāzī also known as Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1640 C.E.) from his philosophical encyclopedia: al-Ḥikma al-Muta‘ālya fī al-Asfār al-‘Aqliyya al-Arba‘a. The quote in Arabic من الخلق إلى الحق و من الحق إلى الخلق بالحق (transliteration: min al-khalq ilā al-ḥaq wa mina al-ḥaq ilā al-khalq bi-lḥaq). The translation would be: ‘from the world of creation to the Truth/God and from the Truth/God to the world of creation by way of the truth.’ This quote generally sums up the two methods of doing philosophy as they were developed and understood in Islamic intellectual history. The first, from the world of creation to the world of rational universals and knowledge of God, is the path of the analytic philosophers, rational theologians, scientists and followers of Aristotle. The second, from the truth to the world of creation by way of the truth, is the path of the mystics, mystical philosophers and followers of Plato which starts from universal rational forms and knowledge of God and seek their instantiations in the physical world.