Phil 4952/5953 Shortcut Links to Other Course Webpages
Course Syllabus Part 1 of 2
(Graduate enrollment by permission only.)
Classes begin 16 January and ends 9 May. No classes during Spring Break 11-15 March and Easter Break 28 March – 1 April.
NOTICE: Class 16 January canceled due to instructor illness. First class will be Thursday 18 January.
Location: Raynor Library 320A. Time: TuTh 12:30-1:45 US Central Time. While primarily an in-person class, this course will also be available on-line.
Office Hours: TU-TH 8:20-9:30 Cudahy Hall 143; TH 2:00-4:00 pm at Marquette Hall 437. I can also meet in person or online via TEAMS other times by appointment. Email: Richard.Taylor@Marquette.edu
Course Description:
Philosophy in the Lands of Islam or Islamic Philosophy in the Classical Period, while richly stimulated by Greek Philosophy in Arabic translation, has its own distinctive nature as an intellectual discipline developed in the context of Islamic revelation. In this cultural context philosophy has to engage with Islamic revelation in a coherent fashion while retaining its own distinctive philosophical and scientific methods and focus. This Seminar will address philosophical thought and doctrines in the 9th to 12th centuries in key translations into Arabic and also in thinkers such as al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and al-Ghazali from the Middle East and such as Ibn Rushd and Maimonides (a Jewish thinker working largely in the Islamic philosophical tradition) in Andalusia (the Iberian Peninsula). Topics will include the metaphysics of God and created being, the philosophical psychology of human soul and intellectual knowledge, the relation of philosophy and religion, the nature of happiness and related topics.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the course, students will be able on their own to understand, interpret, and comment on the philosophical writing of key thinkers in Philosophy in the lands of Islam, as well as orient themselves in the technical terminology and grasp the meaning and structure of the debated issues in the context of the cultural of Islam and Islamic religion. This includes the development of these skills by students:
- identifying, summarizing, ‘reconstructing’ the arguments;
- engaging with sophisticated interpretations of problematic textual passages, making use of the primary and secondary sources and interpretive categories implied in them and looking for further conceptual paradigms to uncover the hidden assumptions of the reasoning;
- arguing analytically and historically for or against explanations of the debated issues as they have been presented in the literature;
- conceiving their own argumentative reflection and organizing it according to a concrete and intellectually insightful structure, expressing such an outline in a well-written and possibly elegant paper.
Course Grade Determination:
This course is designed to be analytical in the treatment of philosophical texts and also writing intensive. The participation grade will be based on written classroom questions and oral discussion.
Undergraduate grading will be based on: participation 20%, a first short paper of 8-10 pp. (20%), a final exam (20%), and a major course paper of ca. 15 pp. (40%)
For graduate student enrollees, the same except that the first short paper will be ca. 15 pp. and the final paper ca. 20+ pp. Participation by graduate students is expected to be more sophisticated work with primary and secondary sources.
Required Texts:
Luis X. López-Farjeat, Classical Islamic Philosophy. A Thematic Introduction, New York: Routledge 2022. (Available online via Marqcat)
Richard C. Taylor & Luis X. López-Farjeat, eds., The Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy, New York: Routledge, 2016. (Available online via Marqcat)
The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Peter Adamson & Richard C. Taylor, eds., Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. (Available online via Marqcat)
Jon McGinnis & David C. Reisman, translators, Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources, Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Company, 2007. (Available online via Marqcat)
Other selected translations by the instructor and other scholars in this professional field.
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