PHIL428B

Recommended: A class in philosophy. Cross-listed with: JWST429B. Credit only granted for: PHIL428B or JWST429B. The philosophical tradition in the Islamic world includes such important thinkers as al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, Judah ha-Levy, Averroes, and Maimonides. In this seminar, works of, among others, these philosophers are read, with a view to the background of the debates in Islamic theology (kalam) and the transmission of ancient Greek philosophy in the Arabic language. Unlike most courses on this topics, we will speak of the Jewish (and some Christian) contribution to Arabic philosophy. In fact, a particular interest will be understanding how minority cultures appropriate philosophical doctrines and reinterpret their tradition in its light. Cross-listed with JWST429B. Credit only granted for JWST429B or PHIL428B. An introduction to classical Arabic philosophy from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries of the Christian era. But unlike most courses on this topic, we shall not be reading philosophy solely by Muslims but also by Jews (and maybe Christians). In a sense, the course is best described by the title of the book by Dimitri Gutas, "Greek Thought, Arabic Culture".