Islamic Philosophy and the Modern Era

Islamic Philosophy and the Modern Era
Mrs. Rachel Kantz Feder

Course Description:
This course will introduce students to the seminal debates and historical developments that have defined the tradition of Islamic philosophy and its evolution into the modern era. It will begin with a survey of the formative period for medieval Islamic philosophy (falsafa) and theology (kalam), concentrating on the Islamic tradition’s rise, the translation movement of the 8th to 10th centuries, and the diversity of Islamicate thought. The course will focus on key figures and schools of thought while analyzing their contributions and the dynamics of their discursive communities within the relevant political and social contexts. In the latter part of the semester, we will study Islamic and Arab thinkers’ intellectual relationship to European philosophical tradition of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly moral philosophy, political economy, and existentialism. We will explore Arab and Muslim thinkers’ perceptions of critical developments such as Darwin’s evolutionary biology and the emergence of modern psychology (an offshoot from philosophy). We will conclude by examining the intellectual responses to these issues that shaped discourses on self-hood, decolonization, and modernity and found expression in various political and social currents in the modern Middle East.
Course Requirements:
Attendance and participation constitute an important component of your final grade. Attendance is required and everyone is expected to come prepared and participate in class discussions.
Grading:
Attendance and Participation 30%
In-class Presentation: 20%
Final Paper: 50%

Tentative Reading List – Syllabus to follow shortly:

Peter Adamson, “Al-Kindi and the Reception of Greek Philosophy,” in Peter Adamson & Richard C. Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 32-51.
Ian Richard Netton, Al-Farabi and His School, (New York: Curzon, 1992).
Sajjad Rizvi, Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics: Modulation of Being, (New York: Routledge, 2009).
Fazlur Rahman, The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra Shirazi, (New York: State University of New York Press, 1976).
Muhsin al-Musawi, The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction (Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2015).
Marwa El-Shakry, Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860-1950 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014).
Charles Tripp, Islam and the Moral Economy: The Challenge of Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab, Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in a Comparative Perspective, (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 2012).
Yoav Dicapua, “Arab Existentialism: An Invisible Chapter in the Intellectual History of Decolonization,” American Historical Review, Vol. 117, No. 4 (2012).
Omnia El-Shakry, “The Arabic Freud: The Unconscious and the Modern Subject,” Modern Intellectual History, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2014).
Maria De Cillis, Free Will and Predestination in Islamic Thought: Theoretical Compromises in the Works of Avicenna, al-Ghazali and Ibn ‘Arabi, (New York: Routledge, 2014).
Robert Kane, The Significance of Free Will, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Iqbal Sing Sevea, The Political Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal: Islam and Nationalism in Late Colonial India (Cambridge, 2012
Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996)
Edward S. Reed, From Soul to Mind: The Emergence of Psychology from Erasmus Darwin to William James, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).
Laurence D. Smith, Behaviorism and Logical Positivism: A Reassessment of the Alliance, (Stanford: Stanford University Pres, 1986),
Eugene DeRobertis and John Iuculano, “Metaphysics and Psychology: A Problem of the Personal,” Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 25., No. 2 (2005).
Charles Taylor, Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002).
Nicholas Griffin, The Cambridge Companion to Bertrand Russell, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Logical Foundations of Induction: A New Study of Induction Seeking Common Logical Ground between Natural Sciences and Faith, trans. M.F. Zidan, (Alexandria: Alexandria University, 1993)