This biannual course is taught on years 2015-2016, 2017-2018, ....
Introductory philosophy course.
The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.
The course aims to give the students a broad historical perspective of the main trends of philosophy (falsafa) as these were developed in the Arabic-Islamic cultural sphere. The course attempts to define what falsafa is, what are its origins, and what place it occupies in Arabic-Islamic culture. It gives an introduction to the most influential thinkers and to the questions that have nourished the debates of the falâsifa.
By the end of this course, the student should:
- know the nature and the place of philosophy as it developed in the Arabic-Islamic cultural sphere;
- know how to situate historically the thinkers and trends of Arabic-Islamic philosophy;
- know how to situate philosophy's relationship to other forms of thinking in this particular cultural sphere;
- know how to define the central issues addressed and what is at stake in them in the context of Arabic-Islamic philosophy;
- know how to use the tools that allow one to study in a general, or more in depth, manner Arabic-Islamic thinking in its philosophical aspect.
The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.
Oral exam, based on the subjects addressed in class as well as on the reading.
Activities outside the class: readings; personal research to acquire and/or increase the student's familiarity with the tools and resources used in the study of Arabic philosophical texts.
Activities in class: ex cathedra course; discussion on preparatory readings
This course aims to introduce to the major figures, issues and texts of philosophy in pre-modern Islam. After a reminder of the historical conditions of the emergence of falsafa in Islam, the course introduces to questions regarding metaphysics, anthropology, epistemology, the philosopher in/and the city, the philosopher and the prophet.
The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Ed. P. Adamson & R. Taylor. Cambridge, CUP, 2005.
The Routledge companion to Islamic philosophy.Ed. R. C. Taylor & L. X. Lo'pez-Farjeat. New York, Routledge, 2015.
The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy. Ed. Kh. El-Rouayheb & S. Schmidtke. Oxford, OUP, à paraître 2016.
Supporting material: The students are encouraged to read the following works, available at the ISP library: Fakhry, M. A History of Islamic Philosophy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983 (2nd Edition, 1st edition: 1070). This book has been translated into French by M. Nasr, Histoire de la philosophie islamique. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1989. Cruz Hernandez, M., Historia del pensamiento en el mundo islamico. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1996.
