An Introductory Course On Perspectives Of Western And Islamic Philosophy

Agenda

•Initiate session 10:25

•About the lectures10:25 – 10:40

•Western perspectives 10:40 – 11:25

•Break11:25 – 11:40

•Islamic perspectives 11:40 – 12:25

•Questions and answers12:25 – 13:00

Lecture Series

A total of nine lectures are anticipated to be delivered on a monthly basis over a

period of nine consecutive months

Each of the lectures shall provide a rudimentary understanding of various

philosophical concepts

Please refer to the provided handbook for further details and supplementary

readings

Sessions Date and Time Subject Matter Western

Perspectives

Islamic

Perspectives

1 of 9

24th August 2014

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

Introduction to philosophy

What is philosophy?

Why study philosophy?

Meaning and definition

2 of 9

21st September 2014

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

What can we know?

Knowledge

[Epistemology 1/2]

What is knowing?

What is knowledge?

Belief, truth and evidence

The sources and concepts of knowledge,

reason and experience

3 of 9

19th October 2014

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

What is the world like?

Perceiving the World

[Epistemology 2/2]

Realism

Idealism

Our knowledge of the physical world

4 of 9

23rd November 2014

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

The way the world works

Scientific Knowledge

[Philosophy of Science]

Laws of nature

Explanation

Theories

Possibility

The problem of induction

5 of 9

21st December 2014

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

What is and what must be?

Freedom and Necessity

[Metaphysics]

Causality

Determinism and freedom

6 of 9

18th January 2015

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

What am I?

Mind and Body

[Philosophy of Mind]

The physical and the mental,

The relationship between the physical and the mental,

Materialism

7 of 9

15th February 2015

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

What else is there?

[Philosophy of Religion 1/2]

Ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence

of God

8 of 9

22th March 2015

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

What else is there?

[Philosophy of Religion 2/2]

The concept of God

The problem of evil

Religious concepts

9 of 9

19th April 2015

10:15am - 1.00pm

JKN

The is and the ought

[Problems in Ethics]

Meta-ethics

Theories of goodness

Theories of conduct

The primary aim and overall objective, among other subsidiary

benefits, is to assist in familiarising and acquainting its recipients with

the conceptual [and intellectual] perils, predominantly encountered by religion in todays society, which are propelled by [or in the name of]

philosophy.

Philosophy of Mind

What is ‘Philosophy of Mind’?

The philosophical study of the mind and

the mental functioning.

Why study the Philosophy of Mind?

Curiosity. Mental phenomena

seems to different from everything else.

How we know about mental states differs from how we know everything

else.

Mental states play a central role in providing

meaning to our lives.

Interests us because . . .

What are the problems it’s concerned with?

Problems that constitute this field concern mentality and mental problems

[1]

Clarifying out conception of

mentality itself.

[2]

Metal properties and mental

states.

[3]

The mind-body

problem.

The Mind-Body Problem

The philosophical problem of how the mind is related to the body, and of what properties,

functions, and occurrences should be regarded as,

respectively, mental or physical.

Why should we think there is a problem here?

Mental

Physical

The mental states are so utterly

different from the physical and yet the

two seem intimately related

to each other.

What do we mean by the term ‘mind’?

Soul

Psychological states

Nothing but the brain

Different understandings

of the mind, quite evidently, lead to different understandings

of the mind-body problem.

Mental Causation

The term "mental causation" applies to causal transactions involving mental events or states, such as

beliefs, desires, feelings, and perceptions. Typically, the term is

used to refer to cases where a mental state causes a physical reaction

Dualism and Materialism

Cartesian Dualism

Extended substance or matter

Mind or soul

Materialism

Matter alone exists, implying a denial of the existence of

minds, spirits, divine beings, etc.

Whatever exists is either matter, or entirely dependent

on matter for its existence.

Cartesian Dualism

Physical Substance

Mental Property

Physical Property

I N T E R A C T

I N T E R A C T

Central-State Materialism

Body

Brain

(Mind)

Models of Mind-Body Interaction

Interactionism

the view that the mind and the body directly cause things

to happen in each other

Parallelism

the view that the mind and the body act "in parallel," but

never casually interact directly

Epiphenomenalism

the view that only the body has causal powers, but the

mind is causally inert

Reductionism

the view that the mind just is the body, and so whatever causal efficacy the physical

has, the mental also has

Four basic models of mind-body

interaction

Religious Implications of Philosophy of Mind

Dualistic View

Allows room for specific religious

doctrines

Materialistic View

No room for anything other than

a reductionist explanation

How likely is it that we solve the problem of

interaction between mind and body?

Break

15 Minutes

IslamicPerspective

Motivation in Pursuing Knowledge of the Soul

In opposition to the Occasionalist views of the

Mutakallimûn.

Philosophers wished to anchor their knowledge of the world in a stable and

predictable physical reality.

This entailed naturalizing the soul (nafs in Arabic)

itself, charting the relation between its external and

internal senses and between its imaginative and rational faculties.

The ultimate goal of this subject, conjunction of the

intellect with universal truth, had a decidedly

metaphysical and spiritual aspect.

Aristotle’s Concept of the Soul

Soul

Form of a Body

Actuality of a Body

Potentially Alive

Aristotle’s Division of Parts & Powers of Soul

Intellective and rational soul

[Humans]

Sensitive Soul

[Animals and Humans]

Nutritive or Vegetative

[Common to all living bodies – plants, animals and humans

alike]

Most Arab Philosophers accepted Aristotle’s division of the parts and powers of the soul according to which “soul” is an

ordered genus divided into three

species, corresponding to the

division of living things to plants,

animals, and humans.

The Peripatetics

Identified four development stages of the intellect

[1]

Potential or

Material Intellect

[2]

Habitual Intellect

[3]

Actual Intellect

[4]

Acquired Intellect

Ibn-Sīnā Conception of the Soul

Rejected Aristotle’s

concept of the soul

Upholds a form of soul-body

dualism

The soul is a subsistent being in its own right

Independent of any relation to the body

Holds the personal immortality of the

individual human soul

The Eternity of the Soul

Most Philosophers viewed the intellect alone

as immaterial and incorruptible and, thus

eternal.

They also typically conceived of

eschatological notions such as Paradise and Hell in purely spiritual terms.

They rejected the Qur’anic doctrine of bodily resurrection as a crude but

necessary figurative sop thrown to the uncomprehending vulgar multitude.

Imām Al-Ghazālī’sRejection

Possibility that the soul is to some extent dependent on

the body

That which is unascertainable affords

no ground for the judgement

Destruction may be caused by God

Occasionalism

Occasionalism and the Mind-Body Problem

Occasionalism is often thought of primarily as a

rather desperate solution to the problem of mind-body

interaction.

Mind and body, it maintains, do not in fact causally affect each other at all; rather, it is

God who causes bodily movements to occur 'on the

occasion of' appropriate mental states (for example, volitions), and who causes

mental states, such as sensations, on the occasion of

the corresponding bodily states (for example, sensory

stimulation).

Occasionalism and the Mind-Body Problem

NEXT LECTURE

PHILOSOPHY OFRELIGION

15th February 2015 10:15am – 13:00

JKN