Islamic philosophy

By Leaman, Oliver

Islamic philosophy may be defined in a number of different ways, but the perspective taken here is that it represents the style of philosophy produced within the framework ...

Law, Islamic philosophy of

By Calder, Norman

One of the principles of Islam which precedes juristic discussion proper is that God, the creator and lord of the world, has commissioned humanity to believe, confess and ...

Indian Islamic philosophy

see Iqbal, Muhammad. Shah Wali Allah (Qutb al-Din Ahmad al-Rahim).

Islamic philosophy in Spain

see Ibn al-‘Arabi, Muhyi al-Din. Ibn Bajja, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn as-Sa’igh. Ibn Rushd, Abu‘l Walid Muhammad. Ibn Tufayl, Abu Bakr Muhammad.

Language, Islamic philosophy of

see Meaning in Islamic philosophy.

Meaning in Islamic philosophy

By Leaman, Oliver

The discussion of the notion of meaning in Islamic philosophy is heavily influenced by theological and legal debates about the interpretation of Islam, and about who has the ...

Islamic philosophy, modern

By Morewedge, Parviz; Leaman, Oliver

There are a number of major trends in modern Islamic philosophy. First, there is the challenge of the West to traditional Islamic philosophical and cultural principles and the ...

Orientalism and Islamic philosophy

By Nooruddin, Ubai

Orientalism is the concept that there is something very special and different about the thought of those living in the East, which can be discovered through the methods ...

Science in Islamic philosophy

By Sardar, Ziauddin

Islam attempts to synthesize reason and revelation, knowledge and values, in its approach to the study of nature. Knowledge acquired through rational human efforts and through the Qur’an ...

Aesthetics in Islamic philosophy

By Black, Deborah L.

The major Islamic philosophers produced no works dedicated to aesthetics, although their writings do address issues that contemporary philosophers might study under that heading. The nature of beauty ...

Soul in Islamic philosophy

By Inati, Shams C.

The discussion of the human soul, its existence, nature, ultimate objective and eternity, occupies a highly important position in Islamic philosophy and forms its main focus. For the ...

Platonism in Islamic philosophy

By Burrell, David

Plato seems to have been more an icon and an inspiration than an authentic source for Islamic philosophers. So far as is known, the only works available to ...

Ethics in Islamic philosophy

By Fakhry, Majid

The study of Islamic ethics, whether philosophical or theological, grew out of early discussions of the questions of predetermination (qadar), obligation (taklif) and the injustices of temporal rulers, ...

Logic in Islamic philosophy

By Black, Deborah L.

Islamic logic was inspired primarily by Aristotle’s logical corpus, the Organon (which according to a late Greek taxonomy also included the Rhetoric and Poetics). Islamic authors were also ...

Aristotelianism in Islamic philosophy

By Kennedy-Day, Kiki

In Arabic, Aristotle was referred to by name as Aristutalis or, more frequently, Aristu, although when quoted he was often referred to by a sobriquet such as ‘the ...

Neoplatonism in Islamic philosophy

By Netton, Ian Richard

Islamic Neoplatonism developed in a milieu already saturated with the thought of Plotinus and Aristotle. The former studied in Alexandria, and the Alexandrine philosophical syllabus included such figures ...

Epistemology in Islamic philosophy

By Inati, Shams C.

Muslim philosophers agree that knowledge is possible. Knowledge is the intellect’s grasp of the immaterial forms, the pure essences or universals that constitute the natures of things, and ...

Europe: impact of Islamic philosophy on Western

see Islamic philosophy: transmission into Western Europe.

Greek philosophy: impact on Islamic philosophy

By Fakhry, Majid

During the Hellenistic period (323–43 bc), classical Greek philosophy underwent a radical transformation. From being an essentially Greek product, it developed into a cosmopolitan and eclectic cultural ...

Islamic philosophy: transmission into Western Europe

By Burnett, Charles

The Arabs took on the mantle of late antique philosophy and passed it on to both Latin scholars and Jewish scholars in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. ...

Indian and Tibetan philosophy

By Hayes, Richard P.

The people of South Asia have been grappling with philosophical issues, and writing down their thoughts, for at least as long as the Europeans and the Chinese. When ...

Introduction to Philosophy

By Crane, Tim

REP can be approached at so many different levels: philosophers at any stage can lose themselves in the interconnected web of entries. ...

Islam, concept of philosophy in

By Leaman, Oliver

There is no generally accepted definition of what Islamic philosophy is, and the term will be used here to mean the sort of philosophy which arose within the ...

Mystical philosophy in Islam

By Nasr, Seyyed Hossein

Mystical philosophy has an intimate connection with the mainstream of Islamic philosophy. It consists of several main strands, ranging from Isma‘ili thought to the metaphysics of al-Ghazali and ...

Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman (1332–1406)

By Issawi, Charles; Leaman, Oliver

Ibn Khaldun’s work on the philosophy of history is a landmark of social thought. Many historians – Greek, Roman, Muslim and other – had written valuable historiography, but ...