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State University of New York Press - Seyyed Hossein Nasr

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276 pages

English

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AIslamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present offers a comprehensive overview of Islamic philosophy from the ninth century to the present day. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr attests, within this tradition, philosophizing is done in a world in which prophecy is the central reality of life—a reality related not only to the realms of action and ethics but also to the realm of knowledge. Comparisons with Jewish and Christian philosophies highlight the relation between reason and revelation, that is, philosophy and religion.

Nasr presents Islamic philosophy in relation to the Islamic tradition as a whole, but always treats this philosophy as philosophy, not simply as intellectual history. In addition to chapters dealing with the general historical development of Islamic philosophy, several chapters are devoted to later and mostly unknown philosophers. The work also pays particular attention to the Persian tradition.

Nasr stresses that the Islamic tradition is a living tradition with significance for the contemporary Islamic world and its relationship with the West. In providing this seminal introduction to a tradition little-understood in the West, Nasr also shows readers that Islamic philosophy has much to offer the contemporary world as a whole.

Preface
Introduction: Philosophy and Prophecy

PART 1. ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY AND ITS STUDY

1. The Study of Islamic Philosophy in the West in Recent Times: An Overview

2. The Meaning and Role of Philosophy in Islam

3. Al-Hikmat al-Ilahiyyah and Kalam

PART 2. PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES

4. The Question of Existence and Quiddity and Ontology in Islamic Philosophy

5. Post-Avicennan Islamic Philosophy and the Study of Being

6. Epistemological Questions: Relations among Intellect, Reason, and Intuition within Diverse Islamic Intellectual Perspectives

PART 3. ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY

7. A Framework for the Study of the History of Islamic Philosophy

8. Dimensions of the Islamic Intellectual Tradition: Kalam, Philosophy, and Spirituality

9. The Poet-Scientist ‘Umar Khayyam as Philosopher

10. Philosophy in Azarbaijan and the School of Shiraz

11. The School of Isfahan Revisited

12. Mulla Sandra and the Full Flowering of Prophetic Philosophy

13. From the School of Isfahan to the School of Tehran

PART 4. THE CURRENT SITUATION

14. Reflections on Islam and Modern Thought

15. Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy Yesterday and Today

Notes
Index

Sujets

Islam

Theology

History of philosophy

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	11 mai 2006
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780791481554
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

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ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE PRESENT
SUNY series in Islam Seyyed Hossein Nasr, editor
ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE PRESENT
Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Published by State University of New York Press
2006 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitte in any form or by any means including elecronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384
Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein.
Islamic philosophy from its origin to the present : philosophy in the land of prophecy / Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
p. cm. - (SUNY series in Islam)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-6799-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-7914-6800-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Philosophy, Islamic. I. Title. II. Series.
B741.N384 2006
181 .07-dc22
2005023943
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6799-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6800-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Quranic revelation is the light which enables one to see. It is like the sun which casts light lavishly. Philosophical intelligence is the eye that sees this light and without this light one cannot see anything. If one closes one s eyes, that is, if one pretends to pass by philosophical intelligence, this light itself will not be seen because there will not be any eyes to see it .
-Mull adr
Contents
Preface
Transliteration
Introduction: Philosophy and Prophecy
P ART 1. I SLAMIC P HILOSOPHY AND I TS S TUDY
1. The Study of Islamic Philosophy in the West in Recent Times: An Overview
2. The Meaning and Role of Philosophy in Islam
3. Al- ikmat al-Il hiyyah and Kal m
P ART 2. P HILOSOPHICAL I SSUES
4. The Question of Existence and Quiddity and Ontology in Islamic Philosophy
5. Post-Avicennan Islamic Philosophy and the Study of Being
6. Epistemological Questions: Relations among Intellect, Reason, and Intuition within Diverse Islamic Intellectual Perspectives
P ART 3. I SLAMIC P HILOSOPHY IN H ISTORY
7. A Framework for the Study of the History of Islamic Philosophy
8. Dimensions of the Islamic Intellectual Tradition: Kal m , Philosophy, and Spirituality
9. The Poet-Scientist Umar Kh yyam as Philosopher
10. Philosophy in Azarbaijan and the School of Shiraz
11. The School of Isfahan Revisited
12. Mull adr and the Full Flowering of Prophetic Philosophy
13. From the School of Isfahan to the School of Tehran
P ART 4. T HE C URRENT S ITUATION
14. Reflections on Islam and Modern Thought
15. Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy Yesterday and Today
Notes
Index
Preface
This book is the result of nearly fifty years of study and meditation upon philosophy and philosophical issues as seen in light of the realities revealed through prophecy both objective and inward in the form of illumination. In a world in which philosophy has become so divorced from revealed realities and secular thought has sought to marginalize and even annihilate knowledge imbued with the sacred, it is necessary to return, whenever possible, to the theme of the relation between philosophy and prophecy through different perspectives and angles of vision. Years ago we dealt with the heart of the question of the relation between knowledge and the reality of the sacred in Knowledge ad the Sacred and have returned to this subject from other angles of vision in later works such as The Need for a Sacred Science .
In the present work we turn our gaze specifically upon philosophy and especially Islamic philosophy. We deal with over a millennium of Islamic philosophy, its doctrines, history, and approaches, from the angle of vision of the relation between that long philosophical tradition and the realities of prophecy that have always dominated the horizon of the Islamic cosmos and the intellectual climate and space of the Islamic people. Some of the chapters of this book were written as essays over the years. They have all been thoroughly revised and integrated into the framework of this book. Many other chapters are new and were written specifically as integral parts of the present work in order to complete the picture that we have sought to depict in the pages that follow.
We wish to thank the Radius Foundation, which provided financial help to make the preparation of this text possible. We are also especially grateful to Katherine O Brien, who prepared and readied the text for the press. Having had to endure reading hundreds of pages of handwritten material and numerous alterations required patience, know-how, and energy to carry out a Herculean task. Without her help it would not have been possible to present the text for publication.
Transliteration
Introduction Philosophy and Prophecy
In the current cultural climate in the West as well as other parts of the globe affected by modernism and postmodernism, philosophy and prophecy are seen as two very different and, in the eyes of many, antithetical approaches to the understanding of the nature of reality. Such was not, however, the case in the various traditional civilizations preceding the advent of the modern world. Nor is it the case even today to the extent that the traditional worldview has survived. Needless to say, by prophecy we do not mean foretelling of the future, but bringing a message from higher or deeper orders of reality to a particular human collectivity. Now the modes of this function have differed from religion to religion, but the reality of prophecy is evident in worlds as diverse as the ancient Egyptian, the classical Greek, and the Hindu, not to speak of the Abrahamic monotheisms in which the role of prophecy is so central. If we do not limit our understanding of prophecy to the Abrahamic view of it, we can see the presence of prophecy in very diverse religious climes in nearly all of which it is not only of a legal, ethical, and spiritual significance but also of a sapiental one concerned with knowledge. We see this reality in the world of the rishis in India and the shamans of diverse Shamanic religions as well as in the iatromantis of the Greek religion and the immortals of Taoism, in the illumination of the Buddha and later in the Zen Buddhist masters who have experienced illumination or satori , as well as the prophets of the Iranian religions such as Zoroaster and of course in the Abrahamic prophets. Consequently in all of these worlds, whenever and wherever philosophy in its universal sense has flourished, it has been related to prophecy in numerous ways.
Even if we limit the definition of philosophy to the intellectual activity in ancient Greece known by that name, an activity that the modern Western understanding of history considers to be the origin of philosophical speculation as such, the rapport between philosophy and prophecy can be seen to be a very close one at the very moment of the genesis of Greek philosophy. We also come to realize that the two drifted apart only later and were not separated from each other at the beginning of the Greek philosophical tradition. Let us just consider the three most important figures at the origin of Greek philosophical speculation. Pythagoras, who is said to have coined the term philosophy , was certainly not an ordinary philosopher like Descartes or Kant. He was said to have had extraordinary prophetic powers and was himself like a prophet who founded a new religious community. 1 The Muslims in fact called him a monotheist (muwa id) and some referred to him as a prophet.
The person often called the father of Western logic and philosophy was Parmenides, who is usually presented as a rationalist who happened to have written a poem of mediocre quality. But as the recent brilliant studies of Peter Kingsley have clearly demonstrated, far from being a rationalist in the modern sense, he was deeply immersed in the world of prophecy in its Greek religious sense and was a seer and visionary. 2 In his poem, which contains his philosophical message, Parmenides is led to the other world by the Daughters of the Sun who came from the Mansion of Light situated at the farthest degree of existence. 3 The answer to the question as to how this journey took place is incubation, a spiritual practice well known in Greek religion, one in which a person would rest completely still until his or her soul would be taken to higher levels of reality, and the mysteries of existence would be revealed.
Thus Parmenides undertakes the inner journey until he meets the goddess who teaches him everything of importance, that is, teaches him what is considered to be the origin of Greek philosophical speculation. It is remarkable that when the goddess confronts Parmenides, she addresses him as kouros , that is, young man. This fact is remarkable and fascinating because in the Islamic tradition the very term for spiritual chivalry (futuwwah in Arabic and jaw nmard in Persian) is associated with the word for youth (fat /jaw n) , and this spiritual chivalry is said to have existed before Islam and to have been given new life in Islam where its source is associated with Al , 4 who received it from the Prophet of Islam and where it was integrated into Sufism. Furthermore, Al has been associated by traditional Islamic sources with the founding of Islamic metaphysics. 5
Another Greek figure who was given the title kouros was Epimenides of Crete who also journeyed to the other world where he met Justice and who brought back laws into this world. Like Parmenides, he also wrote poetry. Now Epimenides