Classic Issues in Islamic Philosophy and Theology Today PDF
Preview Classic Issues in Islamic Philosophy and Theology Today
CLASSICISSUESINISLAMIC PHILOSOPHYANDTHEOLOGYTODAY IslamicPhilosophyandOccidentalPhenomenologyinDialogue VOLUME 4 FounderandEditor: ANNA-TERESATYMIENIECKA,TheWorldInstituteforAdvanced PhenomenologicalResearchandLearning,Hanover,USA Co-Editors: GholamRezaA’avani,SadraIslamicPhilosophyCenter,Teheran,Iran NaderEl-Bizri,UniversityofCambridge,UK EditorialBoard: SeyyedMostafaMohaghgheghDamadAhmadAbadi,SadraIslamicPhilosophyResearch Institute,Tehran,Iran MehdiAminrazavi,MaryWashingtonCollege,Fredericksburg,USA RozaDavariArdakani,SadraIslamicPhilosophyResearchInstitute,Tehran,Iran AngelaAlesBello,CentroItalianodiFenomenologia,Rome,Italy WilliamChittick,SUNY,StonyBrook,USA IbrahimDinani,SadraIslamicPhilosophyResearchInstitute,Tehran,Iran LennE.Goodman,DepartmentofPhilosophy,VanderbiltUniversity,Nashville,USA HassanHanafi,CairoUniversity,Giza,Egypt JamesG.Hart,IndianaUniversity,Indiana,USA SeyyedMohammedKhamenei,SadraIslamicPhilosophyResearchInstitute,Tehran,Iran WalterLammi,TheAmericanUniversityinCairo,Egypt RobertD.Sweeney,JohnCarrollUniversity,Cleveland,OH,USA Classic Issues in Islamic Philosophy and Theology Today Editedby Anna-TeresaTymieniecka TheWorldInstituteforAdvancedPhenomenologicalResearchandLearning, Hanover,NH,USA and NazifMuhtaroglu UniversityofKentucky,Lexington,KY,USA 123 Editors Prof.A-T.Tymieniecka NazifMuhtaroglu TheWorldInstituteforAdvanced UniversityofKentucky PhenomenologicalResearchandLearning Dept.Philosophy 1IvyPointeWay 1415PattersonOfficeTower HanoverNH03755 LexingtonKY40506-0027 USA USA [email protected] ISBN978-90-481-3572-1 e-ISBN978-90-481-3573-8 DOI10.1007/978-90-481-3573-8 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009938170 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2010 Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformor byanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recordingorotherwise,with- outwrittenpermissionfromthePublisher,withtheexceptionofanymaterialsuppliedspecifically forthepurposeofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythe purchaserofthework. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE vii ANNA-TERESATYMIENIECKA/Introduction:TowardtheNew Enlightenment ix SECTION I ABBASYAZDANI/AnInternalistModelofImmediateAwarenessof GodFromanIslamicPhilosophyPerspective 3 ERIKBALDWIN/OntheProspectsofanIslamicExternalist AccountofWarrant 19 SECTION II NAZIFMUHTAROGLU/AnOccasionalistDefenceofFreeWill 45 SETHCORWINVANNATTA/RevelationandReason:Ibn‘Arabi’s SufismandG.W.Leibniz’sIdealism 63 MUHAMMADSHABBIRAHSEN/IqbalonSelfandPrivacy:A CriticalAnalysisintheLightofWittgenstein’sPhilosophical Investigations 79 SECTION III CHRYSSISIDIROPOULOU/WhoistheGodoftheQur’an?A MedievalIslamicDebateandContemporaryPhilosophyofReligion 91 IZZETCOBAN/NursionTheodicy:ANewTheologicalPerspective 111 SECTION IV OLIVERLEAMAN/PoetryandtheEmotionsinIslamicPhilosophy 139 HABIPTURKER/ADiscussionoftheAestheticViewsofIbnSina andAristotleontheBasisofAestheticValue 151 KIKIKENNEDY-DAY/TranslatingMale-OrientedPhilosophical WorksforaMulti-GenderSociety 171 Index 183 v PREFACE Withsomeexceptions,thereisnotarealinterestinIslamicphilosophyandthe- ologyinWesterninstitutionstoday.Thislargelyignoredareahasthepotential to present enlightening insights into the development of the Western thought and to contribute to contemporary discussions in philosophy and theology in general. Scholars working in Islamic thought usually focus on its medieval background and consider it to be mainly of a historical interest and far away fromtheintellectualworldoftoday.Showingitscontemporaryrelevanceisan importanttaskbywhichthestatusofIslamicphilosophycanbeelevatedtoits properstation. Byconsideringthesepointsinmind,theUniversityofKentuckyorganized aninternationalgraduatestudentconferenceonIslamicphilosophyandtheol- ogywithanemphasisonitscontemporaryrelevancewhichwasheldbetween the 28th and 30th September 2007. This book emerged out of the confer- ence by adding more chapters relevant to the main theme of the book. This bookpresentsanalysesanddiscussionsofdifferenttopicsinIslamicphiloso- phyandtheologybyrelatingthemtocontemporarydebatesandideasinfour mainareas:epistemology,metaphysics,philosophyofreligionandvaluethe- ory.Therearetenchaptersinsum.Someofthechaptersarewrittenbygraduate studentsandsomeofthembyexperiencedscholars.Eachchapterpresentscon- siderable insight into its relevant topic but does not represent the opinion of anybodyexcepttheauthor. I would like to thank the University of Kentucky, especially the Interfaith DialogueOrganizationattheUniversity,OliverLeamanwhoactuallycameup withtheideaofsuchanunusualconferenceandsupporteditwithhisallenergy, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka for her diligent efforts in preparing this book and alltheparticipantsoftheconferencetogetherwiththeadditionalauthorswho contributedtothisprojectwiththeirchapters. NazifMuhtaroglu vii ANNA-TERESA TYMIENIECKA INTRODUCTION: TOWARD THE NEW ENLIGHTENMENT Asdiverseinnations,languages,andregionsoftheworldasisIslamicculture, its core remains uncontestably theological, metaphysical, and philosophical. ThesethreeperspectiveshaveplayedtheirrolefromtheearlyMiddleAgesin debates,likethoseofAvicenna,IbnArabiandothers,withChristianthinkers– responding to the deepest human concern to understand existence and truth. Followingdivergentroutesofcivilizationforseveralcenturies,Islamicthinkers have cultivated several specific convictions along these lines, expanding the core insights into the human being, the cosmos, and the All, sustaining the revelationoftheDivine.Butwhilethiscorewasalwaysmaintained,insubse- quentperiodsthedialogicallinkswithotherculture’sresponsestothecommon innermostconcernsofhumanitycametobeattenuatedorlostaltogether. Furthermore, although the issues and ideas proposed in the great systems oftheIslamichistoricalinheritanceremainvividinhistoricalresearch,inthe lastcentury,asWilliamChittickdeplores,stagnationhasoccurredincreative Islamic thinking, which he attributes to the contemporary developments in world civilization. After slow but steady development over the last few cen- turies,scientificandtechnologicaldiscoveryhasexplodedsoinitsscopeand in its effect on our lives that our attention has turned away from the values ofpersonalinterioritybeforeexistencetowardpreoccupationwithwell-being, practical efficiency, and comfort. Human standards are now so permeated by these pragmatic concerns that our appreciations, valuations, and orientations are diminished in their aims in matters concerning personal, communal, and sociallife.Theclassicconcerntoappreciatehumanexistenceforitsrolewithin theunity-of-everything-there-is-aliveandinrelationtouniversalprinciplesand thetruthoftheAll,totherebygivemeaningtoindividualexistenceanditsdes- tiny,hascededplacetotheimmediatesatisfactionoflife.Thesearchfortruth isoverriddenbyourseekingoutmeanstosecurethissatisfaction.Andyetthe great issues that were dealt with in the classic periods of thought – Islamic, Christian,andother–cannotbeobliteratedfromhumanlife.Itisofnomatter thathumancapacitieshaveexpandedandareconstantlygrowingwithprogress. Thecruxofhumanbeingremainsthesame.Inthecontemporaryexpansionand enrichmentofhumanknowledge,thenatureofourrace’sveryevolvinghangs onouraddressingthecoreconcernsofold. ix x ANNA-TERESA TYMIENIECKA Issuing progressively from the Occidental development of pragmatic rea- son, the empirical reductionistic bent of mind has penetrated all the cultures of the globe. But spiritual longings that characterize the human mind fully considered – as comprising not only the presently favored intellective ratio- nalfacultiesbutalsothedeeppassionalgroundofthesoulwithitsimaginative andcreativepowers–promptustotakeupagaintheessentiallyhumanconcern withTruth.Life’splaceinthecosmos,humantieswiththeAll,andtheperdur- ingmeaningofexistenceriseupbeforeusagainastheeverlastingconcernsof humanness. We may be strongly tempted to take a pessimistic view of the human prospect – and what if we were willy-nilly to let the universal scientific and technologicalconsciousnessmonopolizethoughtanddefinepracticeinallthe dimensionsofthehumanlife?Butthesegreatissuesconcerninghumanexis- tence within its cosmic positioning and its transcendent horizons are being revived across cultural barriers. There is a new wind sweeping through the crevices in the seeming consistency of the pragmatic attempt to deconstruct thecoreofessentialwisdom;newinsightssurgeandnewperspectivesemerge thattakeadvantageoftheevolutiveacquisitionsofhumanprogress. We seem, indeed, to be entering into a New Enlightenment in which full- fledged human reason is undertaking a full critique of life’s ontopoiesis and liberatingitselffromthechainsofpragmaticpreconceptions,asthefulllogos oflife,theeverlastingLogos,opensthehornofplenty. The present collection of essays manifests vivid interest in the issues that have animated the minds of great thinkers through the centuries. Our authors focus on the major questions that dominate the discussions of those thinkers, but not out of mere historical interest or to compare ideas and delineate their filiation. Nay, it appears that their probings are motivated by the urgency of present day concerns. They see today’s questions as having been fore- traced/formulated in classic Islamic thought – and seek the contemporary relevance of the answers then given. However, in addition to this rekindling ofthegreatIslamicformulationsofhumanity’sinnermostinsights,spurredby the urgency of the present day existential concerns, these scholars also leave theterritoryoftheirtraditiontocarryon,asdidtheirforebearsintheMiddle Ages,areflectiveencounterwithvariousChristian/Occidentalframeworksof thought. Participating in the today’s universal intermingling of cultures, our authors converse with Occidental authors in a dialogical spirit of sharing in wisdomandtruth. ThespiritawakeninginourIslamicresearchparticipatesintheNewEnlight- enmentthatiscontributingtoarevivaloffullhumanexistence.Webeginwitha crucialquestionoftheology,thatofthejustificationofknowledgeofthedivine, INTRODUCTION: TOWARD THE NEW ENLIGHTENMENT xi inacontroversyoverthepartsexternalcognitionandimmediate(inner)aware- nessplay,aquestionsocrucialforIslamicaswellasChristiantheisticbelief. Upon that question several of our authors focus (Baldwin, Yazdani). These reflectionshavetheinheritanceofIslamictheoryattheirheartbutopenaspace fordialoguewithcontemporaryOccidentalthinkers. HistoricIslamicdebatesoverfreewillversustheabsoluteordinationofGod, whichfindresonanceinthedebatesofcontemporaryOccidentalphilosophers like Searle and Ryle, are reviewed by Muhtaroglu, who proposes a personal solution in human responsibility. Ground for the reconciliation of revelation andreason,agreatandvastlyramifiedissueforIslamandChristianity,isherein foundinacomparisonmadebetweenIbnArabiandLeibniz(Vannatta).Lud- wig Wittenstein’s theory of the self enlightens the concept of the “privacy” of the self in a discussion by Ahsen. A medieval Islamic debate over the dis- tinction between the “God of the philosophers” and the “God of religion” – onetakenupagainbythepresentRomanCatholicpontiff–isilluminatedby Wittgenstein’scontemporarytheoryoflanguage(Sidiropoulou).Nursi,acon- temporary Turkish theologian, opens a new theological approach to theodicy thatisgroundedintheIslamic“DivineNamesTheology”(Coban),acontem- poraryreflection onthetimelesspreoccupation withhuman sufferingandthe sourcesofgoodandevil. Oliver Leaman offers us a penetrating perspective on poetry and aesthet- ics,upholdingitscognitiveroleeventhoughtheemotional,uniquelypersonal import of aesthetics differs from the logical thrust of ideas, which have uni- versal significance in Islamic Falsafa and the Divine message of God to the Prophetabouttheworldandlife.Hencewemovetoameditationontheexpe- rienceofcatharsisthatseesitnotasbeinguniquelypropertoartbutasfounded bymoralvalueanditsrealizationinaction(Turker). Ourfinalessayofthecollectionisarethinkingoftheacutelyactualissueof gender and its role in culture at large by Kennedy-Day, who re-examines the feminineroleofwomeninamulti-genderedsociety. SECTION I
The list of books you might like
