Muslim Philosophers on the Relation between Metaphysics and Theology

نوع مقاله : مقاله علمی پژوهشی

نویسنده

استاد تمام گروه فلسفه دانشگاه تربیت مدرس

چکیده

Muslim Philosophers
on the Relation between Metaphysics and Theology
Mohammad Saeedimehr*
Received: 01/07/2019     |       Accepted: 05/09/2019
In different parts of Metaphysics, Aristotle presents different (and apparently, conflicting) views on the nature and subject matter of the discipline in question. These different characterizations led to wide-ranging interpretations of the relation between metaphysics and philosophical theology. Muslim Philosophers adopted two different views. Al-Kindi and al-Farabi (in some of his works) endorsed the view that metaphysics is the same as theology as far as its subject matter is the First Cause (God) and it deals essentially with incorporeal entities. After Avicenna, however, a second view became dominant according to which metaphysics has a broader realm that embraces theology as its most noble part. The rationale behind this view is that the subject matter of metaphysics is “being qua being”, or unconditioned existent, in its broad sense so that philosophical theology can be taken as discussing some of the proper accidents of the unconditioned existent. This view requires that metaphysics cannot be a secular discipline and should be totally consistent with theology. It also provides us with a certain interpretation of what is usually called “Islamic philosophy.”

 


* Professor. Department of Philosophy, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran. Iran. ׀         saeedi@modares.ac.ir

🞕 Saeedimehr, M. (2019). Muslim Philosophers on the Relation between Metaphysics and Theology. The Journal of Philosophical-Theological Research, 21(81), 103۔ 118. doi: 10.22091/jptr.2019.4723.2201

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات

عنوان مقاله [English]

Muslim Philosophers on the Relation between Metaphysics and Theology

نویسنده [English]

  • Mohammad Saeedimehr
* Professor. Department of Philosophy, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran. Iran. ׀ saeedi@modares.ac.ir
چکیده [English]

Muslim Philosophers
on the Relation between Metaphysics and Theology
Mohammad Saeedimehr*
Received: 01/07/2019     |       Accepted: 05/09/2019
In different parts of Metaphysics, Aristotle presents different (and apparently, conflicting) views on the nature and subject matter of the discipline in question. These different characterizations led to wide-ranging interpretations of the relation between metaphysics and philosophical theology. Muslim Philosophers adopted two different views. Al-Kindi and al-Farabi (in some of his works) endorsed the view that metaphysics is the same as theology as far as its subject matter is the First Cause (God) and it deals essentially with incorporeal entities. After Avicenna, however, a second view became dominant according to which metaphysics has a broader realm that embraces theology as its most noble part. The rationale behind this view is that the subject matter of metaphysics is “being qua being”, or unconditioned existent, in its broad sense so that philosophical theology can be taken as discussing some of the proper accidents of the unconditioned existent. This view requires that metaphysics cannot be a secular discipline and should be totally consistent with theology. It also provides us with a certain interpretation of what is usually called “Islamic philosophy.”

 


* Professor. Department of Philosophy, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran. Iran. ׀         saeedi@modares.ac.ir

🞕 Saeedimehr, M. (2019). Muslim Philosophers on the Relation between Metaphysics and Theology. The Journal of Philosophical-Theological Research, 21(81), 103۔ 118. doi: 10.22091/jptr.2019.4723.2201

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Metaphysics
  • Theology
  • Ontology
  • Aristotle
  • Avicenna
  • Mulla Sadra

مراجع

-  Adamson, P. (2018). Al-Kindi. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018). Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/al-kindi/
-  Al-Farabi. (1405a AH). Fusul al-Muntaze‘ah. (Edited and commented by Fuzi Najar). Tehran: Al-Zahra.
-  Al-Farabi. (1405b AH). Al-Jam‘ bayn Ra’y al-Hakimayn, Introduction and Comments by Al-Bair Nasri Nader. Tehran: Al-Zahra.
-  Al-Farabi. (1986). Kitab al-Huruf (The Book of Letters). introduction and comments by Muhsin Mahdi. Bairut: Dar al-Mashriq.
-  Al-Kindi. (1974). Fi al-Falsafa al-Ula (Al-Kindi’s Metaphysics). Translated with introduction and commentary by Alfred L. Ivry. Albany: SUNY Press.
-  Aristotle. (1984). The Complete Works of Aristotle, The Revised Oxford Translation, edited by Jonathan Barnes, Prinston: Prinston University Press.
-  Avicenna. (1326 AH). Risalah fi Aqsam al-‘Ulum al-‘Aqliyah. In Tisa‘ Rasail fi al_Hikmah wa Al-Tabi‘iyyaat. Cairo: Dar al-‘Arab.
-  Avicenna. (1973). Danishnama-i ‘Alai. Translated by Parviz Morewedge as The Metaphysica of Avicenna. New York: Columbia University Press.
-  Avicenna. (1980). ‘Uyun al-Hikmah. Introduction by Abd al-Rahman Badawi. Bairut: Dar al-Qalam.
-  Avicenna. (2005). Al-Ilahiyyaat min Al-Shifa’, (The Metaphysics of Healing). Translated, introduced and annotated by Michael Marmura, Brigham Young University.
-  Bertolacci, A. (2006). The Reception of Aristotle's Metaphysics in Avicenna's Kitab Al-Sifa': A Milestone of Western Metaphysical Thought. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers.
-  Gohlman, W.E. (1974). The Life of Ibn Sina. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
-  McGinnis, J. & Reisman D. C. (Eds.). (2007). Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
-  Shirazi, S. M. (Mulla Sadra). (1354 SH). Al-Mabda’ wa Al-Ma‘aad. Tehran: Anjoman-i Hekmat va Falsafe.
-  Shirazi, S. M. (Mulla Sadra). (1981). Al-Hikmat al-Muta‘aliyah fi al-Asfar al-‘Aqliyyat al-Arba‘ (The Transcendent Wisdom Concerning the Four Intellectual Journeys), 9 vols., Beirut: Dar al-Ihya’ al-Turath.
-  Shirazi, S. M. (Mulla Sadra). (2001). Sharh al-Hidaya al-Athiriyya. M.M. Fuladkar (ed.), Beirut: Dar Iḥyaʾ al-Turath al-‘Arabi.
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