Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy (Suny Series in Islam)

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 380 pages
• Published by: State University of New York Press; New title edition June 30, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0791467996
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0791467992
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

Product Description
A comprehensive overview of the Islamic philosophical tradition.

Back Cover Copy
Islamic 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.


"One of the author’s great gifts is to set down the significance of what is fundamentally at issue in philosophical thinking and to show the relevance of that thinking to the human situation across the board. No one else in the field of Islamic philosophy has such a sweeping vision of what that philosophy has been and is all about, nor is there anyone else who can suggest as clearly why this and kindred traditions are utterly central to us as human beings today." — William C. Chittick, author of The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-Arabi’s Cosmology

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy (Suny Series in Islam) (Paperback) Nasr is a prolific author and prestigious witness to the contemporary relevance of Islamic philosophy in its traditional form, especially as fashioned within the Shia tradition. Nasr is also a masterful propagandist, attempting to reinvigorate the traditional point of view, not only in Islamic studies, but also in religious studies generally. This volume pays tribute to the change in religious studies orientation over the last twenty years, showing how into Islamic studies, the traditional point of view, which was definitely marginal and suspect thirty years ago, has now moved more towards the center of normative religious studies. In many ways Nasr and his colleagues have been the patient architects of this movement. Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present attempts to open up what the West considers Islamic philosophy. It moves beyond the usual capstone of Islamic influence on the west being the Averroes' Aristotelian translations which made their way into Latin through Spain and set the theological stage for the High Middle Ages and the Summa of Thomas Aquinas. As Nasr well demonstrates Averroes' rationalism was not the end of Islamic philosophy but actually a sidestream that did not centrally impact the consideration of Kalam, nor the spread and elaboration of Ibn Sina's epistemology as it impacted the central motive of Islamic thought which is to elaborate the presence of revelation and prophecy through the Qu'ran and the community of prayer. Nasr manages a good survey of the scope of Islamic philosophy available in English translation today, and he presents a rationale for his continued encouragement of the traditional viewpoint as valid today as ever.