This Series of seven (7) lectures is part of the Project, The Christian West and Islamic East: Theology, Science, and Knowledge, led by Jon McGinnis and Billy Dunaway of the Philosophy Department of the University of Missouri at St. Louis and funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The Series is in collaboration with the Aquinas and “the Arabs” International Working Group (AAIWG). The Scientific Committee for these lectures includes selected members of the AAIWG from Ankara, Berlin, Cordoba, Isparta, Istanbul, Leuven, Mexico City, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Strasburg, Rabat, and elsewhere.
Lectures on the Project title topic will be presented live via Zoom video software. They will be and recorded and made available at this website. Lectures will be open live to the world for any attendees up to 100 or perhaps more according to the capacity of Zoom. After the live lecture, each presenter will provide a full article based on the lecture by 1 June 2021 for comment and pre-editing by members of the Scientific Committee before submission for consideration for publication in a professional journal or for publication in a book length collection.
Day, time, months of lectures
Lectures of up to 55 min. with am hour for discussion will be on the third Tuesdays of the month 9-11 am US Central Time = 16h-18h Central Europe Time to facilitate attendance by colleagues in North Africa, Europe and the Middle East. In Fall 2020 we have two lectures, one each in October and November. In Spring 2021 there will be five lectures, one each in January, February, March, April and May. For precise dates with titles and abstracts, see below.
List of dates, lectures and presenters
20 October 2020 William Dunaway, University of Missouri at St. Louis, USA. Video Link. “The Epistemology of Theological Predication.” Abstract: This paper is about epistemological constraints on a theory of theological predications. By theological predications, I mean predications of intrinsic perfections to God. Examples include ‘good’, ‘wise’, ‘omniscient’, etc. The usual debates over theological predication focus on deploying exclusively metaphysical considerations to support whether theological predicates are univocal or analogical or purely negative predications. For example, divine simplicity is often used a premise to support some version of the analogical theory of theological predication. I aim to introduce epistemological considerations into the debate, by asking whether prominent theories of theological predication are consistent with knowledge of claims such as ‘God is good’, ‘God is wise’, etc. I argue that medieval thinkers including Maimonides, al-Razi, and Duns Scotus relied on epistemological considerations. I then close by arguing that many proposals in the contemporary literature, most notably proposals from Daniel Bonevac and William Alston, clearly run afoul of epistemological desiderata on a theory of theological predication. Click HERE for video of the lecture.
17 November 2020 Nadja Germann, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany. “‘Meanings… can only be attained through language’: Philosophy of Language in Early Islamic Thought”. Abstract: What is language? How did it originate and how does it work? What is its relation to thought and, beyond thought, to reality? Questions like these have been at the center of lively debate ever since the rise of scholarly activities in the Islamic world during the 8th and 9th centuries. In my talk I will look into a position vis-à-vis issues such as these that has largely been neglected by philosophical research; a position, I tentatively (if not entirely accurately) dubbed ‘linguistic relativism’ elsewhere. This position was developed by leading thinkers of the Arabic linguistic tradition—e.g., Abū ʿUthmān al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868)—and came to present a serious alternative to the Aristotelian theory of language and thought proposed by the falāsifa (Peripatetic thinkers). My focus will be on the 10th century during which this approach was furnished with a strong theoretical basis—e.g., by speculative grammarians like Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUthmān ibn Jinnī (d. 1002)—and powerfully defended against the Aristotelians. It was these developments that ultimately paved the way to the favorable reception and further refinement of this position by pivotal figures such as ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 1078) and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 1210). Video Link.
19 January 2021 Dr. Prof. Cristina Cerami, Paris. “‘Galenizing’ Aristotle. the impace of Galen’s theories on Averroes’ philosophy.” Galen has always been considered a key-element in the transmission of Greek medicine to the Arabic and Latin Middle-Age. Scholars agree that, although questioned, his medical theories have been at the very heart of the Islamic scientific tradition from the 8th century onwards. His role in the Hellenized philosophical tradition, i.e. the falsafa, has been interpreted differently. Scholarship insisted on the harsh criticism lashed out by the falāsifa against Galen’s epistemology whose ultimate aim was to proclaim medicine’s subordinate status to natural philosophy. As a result, Galen’s influence on the philosophical tradition has been somewhat minimized, if not ignored. Some recent studies have succeeded in challenging this narrative, as they highlighted the impact of Galen’s logical theories on the authors of the falsafa. But another aspect of Galen’s influence has gone almost unnoticed: the impact of the his medical anthropology on the Islamic ontology of the sensible world. In my talk, I will show that one of the essential notions of Galen’s physiology, i.e. the notion of complexion, played a decisive role in Averroes’ physics. By taking into consideration some crucial passages from his philosophical and medical treatises, my aim will be to explain how Averroes adapted this Galenic notion to the Aristotelian hylomorphic model. Video Link
16 February 2021 Rahim Acar, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey.
“Importance of Theological Language in the Making of the Medieval Islamic Thought.” Abstract: The axis of the early medieval Islamic thought (approximately up to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi) seems to be the problem of theological language. Since revelation in the Islamic religion is something spoken (the Qur’an), the major problem before Muslim intellectuals, in the early period of Islamic thought, was to come up with a satisfactory account of the Qur’anic verses. One may explain important debates among different groups (different theological schools as well as theologians and falasifa) by referring to their position on theological language. In their effort to make sense of the propositions about God in the Qur’an, the so-called Mujassima or Mushabbiha, thought that a true Muslim must take univocally, whatever is said of God in the Qur’an. Mutezilite theologians’ emphasis on negative language may be considered as a reaction to this position, i.e., understanding God to be similar to bodily creatures. Similarly, Ash’arite theologians’ reaction and rejection of the Mu’tazilite conception of God and his attributes, by distinguishing the essence and various attributes of God, is a reflection of the role played by the problem of theological language in the development of the early Islamic thought.
16 March 2020 Robert Pasnau, University of Colorado – Boulder, Colorado, USA. Title and Abstract forthcoming.
20 April 2021 Aaron Segal, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Title and Abstract forthcoming.
18 May 2021 Fouad Ben Ahmed, Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institute for Higher Islamic Studies, Rabat, Morocco. Title and Abstract forthcoming.
Scientific Committee members:
Co-chairs: (i) Jon McGinnis, University of Missouri at St Louis, and (ii) Richard Taylor at Marquette University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Members: (iii) Rahim Acar at Marmara University Divinity School in Istanbul, (iv) Fouad Ben Ahmed at at Qarawiyine University, Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania, Rabat, (v) Billy Dunnaway, University of Missouri at St Louis, (vi) Yehuda Halper, Bar-Ilan University, (vii) Katja Krause, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science & Technische Universität, Berlin, (viii) Luis López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, (ix) Pedro Mantas at the Universidad de Cordoba, (x) Isabelle Moulin, Université de Strasbourg, (xi) Ayse Oktay, Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Isparta, (xii) Fehrullah Terkan, Ankara University, (xiii) Therese Cory, University of Notre Dame
Organized by Prof. Richard Taylor, Marquette University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, with Dr Nicholas Oschman.
Contact Information
Dr. Nicholas Oschman, Nicholas.A.Oschman@gmail.com
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Missouri at St Louis
The Christian West and Islamic East: Theology, Science, and Knowledge
Member, Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group
Conference reservation to attend (required): contact Dr. Oschman
https://nicholasoschman.com/christian-west-and-islamic-east-lecture-series