The story of reason in Islam / Sari Nusseibeh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nusseibeh, Sari, author.

Series:

Cultural memory in the present.

Cultural Memory in the Present

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Faith and reason--Islam--History.

Faith and reason.

Islamic philosophy--History.

Islamic philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (285 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2017.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In The Story of Reason in Islam, leading public intellectual and political activist Sari Nusseibeh narrates a sweeping intellectual history—a quest for knowledge inspired by the Qu'ran and its language, a quest that employed Reason in the service of Faith. Eschewing the conventional separation of Faith and Reason, he takes a fresh look at why and how Islamic reasoning evolved over time. He surveys the different Islamic schools of thought and how they dealt with major philosophical issues, showing that Reason pervaded all disciplines, from philosophy and science to language, poetry, and law. Along the way, the best known Muslim philosophers are introduced in a new light. Countering received chronologies, in this story Reason reaches its zenith in the early seventeenth century; it then trails off, its demise as sudden as its appearance. Thereafter, Reason loses out to passive belief, lifeless logic, and a self-contained legalism—in other words, to a less flexible Islam. Nusseibeh's speculations as to why this occurred focus on the fortunes and misfortunes of classical Arabic in the Islamic world. Change, he suggests, may only come from the revivification of language itself.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

A Note on Transliteration

Introduction

1. The Arabian Desert

2. The Daunting Idea of God

3. Free Will and Determinism

4. The Qur’an: Created or Eternal?

5. From Wasil to Ibn Hanbal

6. Early Islam: Literacy, Conflict, and Expansion

7. Speculative Discourse: A Style

8. Discourse: In Pursuit of the Ultimate Answers

9. Law and Morality

10. Al-Ma’mun and the Devils’ Banquets

11. The Language-Logic Debate

12. Back to the Human Will and Language

13. Expanding the View

14. An Interlude: Caliph, Imam, and Philosopher-King

15. Philosophy and Politics

16. The Philosophers’ “Frenzy”

17. Back to Wine and Logic

18. Motion and Light

19. The Nature of Truth

20. Fardajan and Beyond

21. The Cosmos

22. Cosmic Lights

23. Fast Forward

24. Language and Reason: The Dilemma

Notes

Further Readings

Name Index

Cultural Memory in the Present

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503600584

1503600580

OCLC:

1198931533