PHIL 213 Medieval Arabic-Islamic Philosophy
Philosophers of the medieval Arabic-Islamic tradition, such as al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, and Ibn Rushd, proposed detailed answers to numerous philosophical questions, grounding their proposals in powerful arguments. Some of these questions include: What is the nature of reality? What is the soul, and how is it related to the body? What is it to know something, and how can we achieve knowledge? What is language, and where does it come from? How should we discern good reasoning from bad? Is there a God? If so, what is God like? What is religion, and what is its role in society? By adopting a broadly Aristotelian framework, but going well beyond its confines, medieval Arabic-Islamic philosophy paved the way for later European Latin philosophy, which borrows heavily from the earlier tradition's insights. We will study those insights in this class.
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