Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha

361 Pages·2019·6.192 MB·English

by  Wael B. Hallaq

A REFORMING
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Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy
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WAEL B. HALLAQ
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK —0
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Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup . columbia . edu
Copyright © 2019 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
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Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid- free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
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For Lena and Cherine
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قلاخا يرغب ناسنا لا
There is no humanity without ethics.
— Su’āl al- Akhlāq, 147
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Contents
Citation Method and Abbreviated Titles xi
Preface and Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
one “Rethinking the Islamic Tradition”: A Conceptual Framework 33
two The Spirit of Modernity 77
three Islamic Applications of Modernity’s Spirit 119
four Recasting Reason 151
five Religion, Secularism, Ethics: A Concept of Critique 176
six Sovereignty, Ethical Management, and Trusteeship 205
Epilogue: A New Concept of the Human 257
Appendix: Taha Responding 273 —-1
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Contents
Notes 279
Bibliography 331
Index 000
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Citation Method and Abbreviated Titles
Wherever a citation in round brackets appears in the body of the main
text (e.g., RD, 473), it invariably refers to Taha’s work. Transliterated
phrases and passages quoted from Taha’s writings will appear, with rel-
evant page citations, in the endnotes, along with all other references.
Works that have not been extensively analyzed are cited with unabbrevi-
ated titles.
AD: Al- ʿAmal al- Dīnī wa- Tajdīd al- ʿAql [Religious Praxis and the Renewal of Reason],
4th ed. Casablanca: al- Markaz al- Thaqāfī al- ʿArabī, 2006.
HAF: al- Ḥaqq al- ʿArabī fil- Ikhtilāf al- Falsafī [The Arab Right to Philosophical Differ-
ence], 2nd ed. Casablanca: al- Markaz al- Thaqāfī al- ʿArabī, 2006.
HIF: al- Ḥaqq al- Islāmī fil- Ikhtilāf al- Fikrī [The Islamic Right to Intellectual Difference].
Casablanca: al- Markaz al- Thaqāfī al- ʿArabī, 2005.
KNN: “Kayfa Nujaddid al- Naẓar fil- Turāth” [“How Do We Rethink Tradition”],
in SM, 41– 57.
RD: Rūḥ al- Dīn: Min Ḍīq al- ʿAlmāniyya ilā Siʿat al- I’timāniyya [The Spirit of Religion:
From the Narrowness of Secularism to the Capaciousness of Trusteeship]. Casa-
blanca: al- Markaz al- Thaqāfī al- ʿArabī, 2012.
RH: Rūḥ al- Ḥadātha: al- Madkhal ilā Ta’sīs al- Ḥadātha al- Islāmiyya [The Spirit of
Modernity: A Prolegomenon to Laying the Foundations of Islamic Modernity].
Casablanca: al- Markaz al- Thaqāfī al- ʿArabī, 2006. —-1
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