Phil 4953/5953 Syllabus Page 2 of 2

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Detailed Course Syllabus

TH 18 Jan

  1. An overview of the field and its development, particularly among North Americans
  2. Transmission and Reception of Philosophy and the Relevant Cultural and Religious Contexts
    2.1. Ancient Philosophy: Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
    2.2. Hellenistic Philosophy (ca. 323BCE-31BCE) Epicureans, Stoics, Sceptics
    2.3. Middle Platonism (ca. 90BCE-120CE) Plutarch: free will, immortality of soul, matter as evil, divine soul of the world, a world created by God
    2.4. Neoplatonism: Plotinus (ca. 204-29 CE): the One beyond being, participation, immortal soul, et al.
    2.5. The rise of Christianity and the Closing of the Academy (529 CE): Athens, Alexandria, Byzantium, Syriac Christianity. Where did pagan philosophy go? Aside: Dionysius and a melding of philosophy and Byzantine Christianity
    2.6. The rise of Islam: the 622 Hijrah, The Qur’an, Ahādīth, Sunna; the rise and fall of the Ummayads (ca. 660-750 in the East, reestablishment in Spain 756-1031); the Abbaisid ascension and the establishment of Baghdad (750-1258 CE)
    2.7. The entré of falsafah into cultural, scientific and religious context of Islam. Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Greaco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ‘Abbasaid Society (2nd-4th/5th-10th c.), 1998.
  3. Classical Philosophy in the Lands of Islam and Classical Rationalist Arabic / Islamic Philosophy
    3.1. The Scope of Classical Philosophy in the Lands of Islam: 750-1198? 750-1258? Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) 980-1037 CE; Ibn Rushd 1126-1198 CE.
    3.2. Classical Rationalist Arabic / Islamic Philosophy: al-Kindi and the chief protagonists of Classical Rationalist Philosophy: al-Farabi (870-950 CE), Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes).
  4. Topics to be considered: forms of logic; natural epistemology; natural sciences; metaphysics; happiness; religion and prophecy. We will examine these matters in each of our key thinkers. Some consideration will also be given to al-Ghazali and Maimonides.

TU 23 Jan Platonic and Aristotelian Foundations.
Platonic:

  1. Commitment to truth and law: Apology & Crito
    Immortality of the soul: Phaedo
    Epistemological, Metaphysical, Ethical Commitment to the Good: Republic
    Dialectical exercise or Platonic theology? Parmenides
  2. Attack on Greek civic religion: Euthyphro & Republic
  3. Building a coherent state: Republic, Laws et al.

Aristotelian:

  1. The logic of demonstration and first principles: Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, selections 1.2, 1.4, & 2.19. See Aristotle, APO selections 1.2, 1.4 & 2.19 at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ItdAw85AZDK85y_BlrqocQldWW_SCliK?usp=sharing.
  2. Substances and Accidents: Categories (I will explain; read another time.)
  3. Natural Philosophy: Physics 2.1-3: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/physics.2.ii.html; Physics 8, the Unmoved Mover. (I will explain; read another time.)
  4. Metaphysics: Knowledge and aetiology: Metaph. 1.1-2: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.1.i.html ; Ontology: Metaph. 4.1: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.4.iv.html; Theology: Metaph. 6.1: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.1.i.html; The internal constitution of substance: Metaph. 7.1, http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.7.vii.html; The Divine: Metaph 12.7 & 9: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.12.xii.html.
  5. Ethics: Ultimate human happiness: Nicomachean Ethicsm 10.7 & 8. http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.10.x.html (I will explain; read another time.)
  6. Religion:  Metaphyics 2.3: “The effect which lectures produce on a hearer depends on his habits; for we demand the language we are accustomed to, and that which is different from this seems not in keeping but somewhat unintelligible and foreign because of its unwontedness. For it is the customary that is intelligible. The force of habit is shown by the laws, in which the legendary and childish elements prevail over our knowledge about them, owing to habit. Thus some people do not listen to a speaker unless he speaks mathematically, others unless he gives instances, while others expect him to cite a poet as witness. And some want to have everything done accurately, while others are annoyed by accuracy, either because they cannot follow the connexion of thought or because they regard it as pettifoggery. For accuracy has something of this character, so that as in trade so in argument some people think it mean. Hence one must be already trained to know how to take each sort of argument, since it is absurd to seek at the same time knowledge and the way of attaining knowledge; and it is not easy to get even one of the two.” And Metaphysics 10.8: “Our forefathers in the most remote ages have handed down to their posterity a tradition, in the form of a myth, that these bodies are gods, and that the divine encloses the whole of nature. The rest of the tradition has been added later in mythical form with a view to the persuasion of the multitude and to its legal and utilitarian expediency; they say these gods are in the form of men or like some of the other animals, and they say other things consequent on and similar to these which we have mentioned. But if one were to separate the first point from these additions and take it alone-that they thought the first substances to be gods, one must regard this as an inspired utterance, and reflect that, while probably each art and each science has often been developed as far as possible and has again perished, these opinions, with others, have been preserved until the present like relics of the ancient treasure. Only thus far, then, is the opinion of our ancestors and of our earliest predecessors clear to us.”

Plotinian: The Hypostases: One, Nous, Soul. For reading, see https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ItdAw85AZDK85y_BlrqocQldWW_SCliK?usp=sharing.

Soul and Intellect in Alexander and in Themistius: For reading, see https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ItdAw85AZDK85y_BlrqocQldWW_SCliK?usp=sharing.

Other reading:
Cristina D’Ancona, “Greek Sources in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy,”
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/.

TH 25 Jan Neoplatonic Foundations (i) Plotinian: The Hypostases: One, Nous, Soul, Enneads 5.1; (ii) lecture on Soul and Intellect in Alexander and in Themistius; (iii) lecture on the Plotiniana Arabica, Procleana Arabic and the context of Aristotelian philosophical translations in the early 9th century: two ‘schools,’ the Circle of al-Kindi and the ‘school’ of Hunayn Ibn Ishaq and his son Ishaq Ibn Hunayn
Secondary Source:
Adamson, P. “Theology of Aristotle,” SEP (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/theology-aristotle/)
Taylor, R. C. , “Contextualizing the Kalam fi mahd al-khair,” 2021

Tu 30 Jan & TH 1 Feb: al-Kindi, ‘Philosopher of the Arabs’:
On First Philosophy, selections; The One True Agent; Soul and Recollection; On Intellect. (Ivry, Al-Kindi’s Metaphysics, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1974; Adamson, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindi, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012; McGinnis, Classical Arabic philosophy : an anthology of source, Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Company, c2007.
Secondary Source:
al-Kindi, SEP:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-kindi/


TU 6 Feb & TH 8 Feb al-Farabi, (i) Introduction; (ii) Discussion of Doctrines and Readings, Al-Farabi on the perfect state : Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī’s Mabādiʼ ārāʼ ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila : a revised text with introduction, translation, and commentary, Oxford [Oxfordshire] : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1985 (iii) Recommended secondary sources: SEP: “Th.-A. Druart, “al-Farabi” online; SEP: Nadja Germann, al-Farabi’s Philosophy of Society and Religion, also Germann’s piece on al-Farabi and religion in The Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy 2016; SEP L. X. López-Farjeat, al-Farabi’s Psychology and Epistemology.


TU 13 Feb al-Farabi, (i) Lecture and Discussions of: al-Farabi’s Aims of Aristotle’s Metaphysics & Treatise on the Intellect, McGinnis, Classical Arabic philosophy : an anthology of source, Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Company, c2007.


TH 15 Feb al-Farabi, (i) Lecture and Discussion of: al-Farabi, Attainment of Happiness in McGinnis, Classical Arabic philosophy : an anthology of source, Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Company, c2007; (ii) Discussion of: Kleven, T., “Al-Farabi on What Is Known Prior to the Syllogistic Arts,” in Contextualizing Premodern Philosophy, Krause, López-Farjeat, Oschman, eds. Routledge, 2022


TU 20 Feb al-Farabi, (i) Lecture and Discussion of: The Book of Religion, Alfarabi. The Political Writings, tr. Charles E. Butterworth, Cornell University Press. 2001.


TH 22 Feb al-Farabi, (i) Lecture and Discussion of: The Political Regime, Alfarabi. The Political Writings, tr. Charles E. Butterworth, Cornell University Press. 2015.


TU 27 Feb: Instead of regular class, I will be in my office (Marquette Hall 437) 11 am – 2:45 pm to discuss topics and formats of course short papers due 7 March individually with students. If those times do not work, I can meet on TEAMS that evening 8-10 pm.


TH 29 Feb: Ibn Sīnā / Avicenna: (i) Introduction to Ibn Sīnā / Avicenna. Recommended: Peter Adamson, Ibn Sina (Avicenna). A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2023; SEP: A. Bertolacci, Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics, D. Gutas, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), O. Lizzini, Ibn Sina’s Metaphysics; A. Ivry, Arabic and Islamic Psychology and Philosophy of Mind.


TU 5, TH 7 Mar: Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), (i) Lecture and Discussion of: Avicenna, Metaphysics book 1, Avicenna. The metaphysics of The healing : a parallel English-Arabic text = al-Ilahīyāt min al-Shifā, tr. M. E. Marmura, Provo, Utah : Brigham Young University Press, 2005. Video lecture on Avicenna, Metaphysics Book 1: link.


TH 7 Mar (i) Short paper on al-Farabi (20%) due; (ii) Lecture and Discussion of: Avicenna, Metaphysics book 1 continued.


11-15 Mar Spring Break


TU 19 Mar Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), (i) Lecture and Discussion of: Avicenna, Metaphysics Book 6: Causality and Creation. Video lecture on Avicenna, Metaphysics, Book 6: link.


TH 21 Mar Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), (i) Lecture and Discussion of Metaphysics 8: The metaphysics of Creation. Video lecture on Avicenna, Metaphysics, Book 8: link.


TU 26 Mar Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) (i) Lecture and Discussion of: Avicenna, Metaphysics books 9 & 10: Prophecy and Social / Ethical Philosophy. Video lecture Book 9: link. Video lecture Book 10: link.


TH 28 Mar Easter Break. No Class.


TU 2 Apr Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), (i) Lecture and Discussion of: Avicenna, On the Soul, part 6 of Natural Philosophy, in The Healing, unpublished translation by Marmura and Black, book1, chapter 1, pp. 1-9. Readings: Olga Lizzini, Human Knowledge and Separate Intellect, in The Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy 2016; A. Ivry, Arabic and Islamic Psychology and Philosophy of Mind in SEP. (ii) I also recommend two videos I prepared some time ago on Ibn Sina (Avicenna) for a course on Soul and Intellect. Video A; Video B.


TH 4 Apr Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, (i) Lecture and Discussion of: Avicenna, On the Soul, book 5, chapters 1-6, pp. 110-135. Recommended reading: a review of recent literature on intellectual abstraction in Ibn Sina: R. Taylor, “Avicenna and the Issue of the Intellectual Abstraction of Intelligibles,” in Vol. 2 Philosophy of Mind in the Early and High Middle Ages, ed. Margaret Cameron, in The History of the Philosophy of Mind, ed. R. Copenhaver and Ch. Shields, (Abingdon, Oxon; New York: 2019) vol. 2, pp. 56-82.


TU 9 Apr* Student Workshop on Final Course Papers


TH 11 Apr & TU 16 Apr Ibn Rushd (Averroes), (i) Introduction; (ii) Lecture and Discussion of Fasl al-maqal / Decisive Treatise. Averroës, The Book of the Decisive Treatise Determining the Connection Between the Law and Wisdom, tr. Charles E. Butterworth, Provo, UtahL Brigham Young University Press, 2001. Readings: SEP: Ibn Rushd [Averroes], by Fouad Ben Ahmed and Robert Pasnau 2021; “Averroes: Religious Dialectic and Aristotelian Philosophical Thought,”by R. Taylor in The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor, eds., pp.180-200. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2005), pp.180-200; R. Taylor, “‘Truth does not contradict truth’: Averroes and the Unity of Truth,” Topoi 19.1 (2000) pp. 3-16; “Averroes and the Philosophical Account of Prophecy,” in Studia Graeco-Arabica 8 (2018) 287-304. Video lectures: Peter Adamson, Introduction to Ibn Rushd (Averroes), link; R. Taylor, Rationality in the theology and philosophy of Ibn Rushd, link.


TH 18 Apr Introducing the Commentaries of Ibn Rushd on Aristotle’s De Anima and the stages in the development of his novel and influential philosophical teachings on the nature of the human soul . Readings: R. Taylor, “Averroes on the Attainment of Knowledge,” in Knowledge in Medieval Philosophy, ed. Henrik Lagerlund in The Philosophy of Knowledge: A History, ed. Stephen Hetherington, (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) vol. 2, pp. 59-79; TBA.

TU 23 Apr & TH 25 Apr Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Soul and Intellect. Videos: Averroes on intellect and ultimate happiness link, Readings: “The Epistemology of Abstraction,” Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy, Richard C. Taylor & Luis X. López-Farjeat, eds. (London & New York: Routledge , (2016), pp. 273-284; and a selection of translations from his Long Commentary on the De Anima of Aristotle (forthcoming)


TH 25 & 30: Apr Ibn Rushd (Averroes) on God. (i) Long Commentary on the Metaphysics: Video lecture: Averroes on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, Book Lam (Lambda) on God link, selections forthcoming. (ii) Selections from his Incoherence of the Incoherence, forthcoming.


TH 2 May Final class review and discussion of final exam. 


Final Exam Tuesday 7 May 2024 10:30-12:30


Final Course Paper Due 9 May