Analytic Islamic Philosophy

Description

This book is an introduction to Islamic Philosophy, beginning with its Medieval inception, right through to its more contemporary incarnations. Using the language and conceptual apparatus of contemporary Anglo-American ‘Analytic’ philosophy, this book represents a novel and creative attempt to rejuvenate Islamic Philosophy for a modern audience. It adopts a ‘rational reconstructive’ approach to the history of philosophy by affording maximum hermeneutical priority to the strongest possible interpretation of a philosopher’s arguments while also paying attention to the historical context in which they worked. The central canonical figures of Medieval Islamic Philosophy – al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, Averroes – are presented chronologically along with an introduction to the central themes of Islamic theology and the Greek philosophical tradition they inherited. The book then briefly introduces what the author collectively refers to as the ‘Pre-Modern’ figures including Suhrawardi, Mulla Sadra, and Ibn Taymiyyah, and presents all of these thinkers, along with their Medieval predecessors, as forerunners to the more modern incarnation of Islamic Philosophy: Political Islam. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Islam and Reason (Anthony Robert Booth)....Pages 1-21 The Greek Legacy (Anthony Robert Booth)....Pages 23-47 Al-Kindi and the Rise of Falsafa (Anthony Robert Booth)....Pages 49-69 Al-Farabi and Islamic Moderate Evidentialism (Anthony Robert Booth)....Pages 71-96 Avicenna and the Modality of the World (Anthony Robert Booth)....Pages 97-116 Anti-evidentialism and Al-Ghazali’s Attack on Falsafa (Anthony Robert Booth)....Pages 117-141 The Philosophers Strike Back: Averroes and Islamic Philosophy After al-Ghazali (Anthony Robert Booth)....Pages 143-169 Islamic Philosophy and Politics (Anthony Robert Booth)....Pages 171-199 Back Matter ....Pages 201-222