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 ...

Ikhwan al-Safa’

By Netton, Ian Richard

The philosophy of the group of Arab philosophers of the fourth or fifth century AH (tenth or eleventh century ad) known as the Ikhwan al-Safa’ (Brethren ...

Plato (427–347 BC)

By Schofield, Malcolm

Plato was an Athenian Greek of aristocratic family, active as a philosopher in the first half of the fourth century bc. He was a devoted follower of ...

Plato (427–347 BC)

Plato was an Athenian Greek of aristocratic family, active as a philosopher in the first half of the fourth century bc. He was a devoted follower of ...

Metaphysics

By Craig, Edward

Metaphysics is a broad area of philosophy marked out by two types of inquiry. The first aims to be the most general investigation possible into the nature of ...

Political philosophy in classical Islam

By Frank, Daniel H.

Political philosophy in Islam is the application of Greek political theorizing upon an understanding of Muhammad’s revelation as legislative in intent. In lieu of Aristotle’s Politics, unknown in ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

al-Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ (d. 925)

By Walker, Paul E.

Perhaps the most famous and widely respected Islamic authority on medicine in the medieval period, al-Razi also aspired to a comparable achievement in philosophy and the other sciences ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

al-Suhrawardi, Shihab al-Din Yahya (1154–91)

By Cooper, John

Al-Suhrawardi, whose life spanned a period of less than forty years in the middle of the twelfth century ad, produced a series of highly assured works which ...

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 ...

Platonism, Renaissance

By Hankins, James

Though it never successfully challenged the dominance of Aristotelian school philosophy, the revival of Plato and Platonism was an important phenomenon in the philosophical life of the Renaissance ...

Platonism, medieval

By Moran, Dermot

Medieval Platonism includes the medieval biographical tradition, the transmission of the dialogues, a general outlook spanning commitment to extramental ideas, intellectualism in cognition, emphasis on self-knowledge as the ...