Ibn Sīnā’s Philosophical Interpretation of Sūrat al-Falaq

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Sayeh Meisami
Keyword(s):  
Classical Period ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
Symbolic Interpretation ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
Work First

Philosophical hermeneutics of the Qurʾān in the classical period has three major characteristics that are discussed in this paper in light of Ibn Sīnā’s work. First, philosophical hermeneutics falls under the category of symbolic interpretation (taaʾwīl)1 rather than technical/linguistic exegesis (tafsīr). Second, it selectively chooses Qurʾānic passages that lend themselves to philosophical interpretations. Third, it tends primarily towards metaphysical and moral issues, and is, for the most part, disinterested in ideological biases. This paper examines Ibn Sīnā’s interpretation of sūrat al-Falaq (Kor 113), and has two objectives: to elucidate the hermeneutical methodology adopted by Ibn Sīnā, and to investigate the consistency between the philosopher’s understanding of evil as well as the discourse used in his interpretation of al-Falaq and the treatment of the same issue in his major and minor philosophical writings. It demonstrates that, in the commentary on al-Falaq, evil emerges at the level of “particular realization” (qadar), while at the level of predetermination (qaḍā) evil is only a latent potentiality. Ibn Sīnā, in both his commentary on al-Falaq and his philosophical texts, tries to prove that evil at the level of predetermination can be explained as intended by accident (bi- al-ʿaraḍ).

The Problem of the Formation of Philosophical Prose in Persian

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 126-137
Author(s):  
Tatyana G. Korneeva
Keyword(s):  
Arabic Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Language Of Science ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
Arab Muslim ◽  
History Of ◽  
Philosophical Texts

The article discusses the problem of the formation of philosophical prose in the Persian language. The first section presents a brief excursion into the history of philosophical prose in Persian and the stages of formation of modern Persian as a language of science and philosophy. In the Arab-Muslim philosophical tradition, representatives of various schools and trends contributed to the development of philosophical terminology in Farsi. The author dwells on the works of such philosophers as Ibn Sīnā, Nāṣir Khusraw, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Aḥmad al-Ghazālī, ʼAbū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and gives an overview of their works written in Persian. The second section poses the question whether the Persian language proved able to compete with the Arabic language in the field of science. The author examines the style of philosophical prose in Farsi, considering the causes of creation of Persian-language philosophical texts and defining their target audience. The article presents viewpoints of modern orientalist researchers as well as the views of medieval philosophers who wrote in Persian. We find that most philosophical texts in Persian were written for a public who had little or no knowledge of the Arabic language, yet wanted to get acquainted with current philosophical and religious doctrines, albeit in an abbreviated format. The conclusion summarizes and presents two positions regarding the necessity of writing philosophical prose in Persian. According to one point of view, Persian-language philosophical works helped people who did not speak Arabic to get acquainted with the concepts and views of contemporary philosophy. According to an alternative view, there was no special need to compose philosophical texts in Persian, because the corpus of Arabic philosophical terminology had already been formed, and these Arabic terms were widely and successfully used, while the new Persian philosophical vocabulary was difficult to understand.

scholarly journals The Absurd as a Representation: Towards a Hermeneutics of the Inexplicable (The Problematic Case of Godot)

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Krystyna Rybińska
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Problematic Case ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
Theatre Of The Absurd ◽  
Waiting For Godot ◽  
Existentialist Philosophy ◽  
The Aesthetic

Abstract This article attempts to re-signify the already extensively discussed conception of the absurd attributed to the aesthetic phenomenon presented by the so-called theatre of the absurd by critically reconsidering its paradigmatic work Waiting for Godot in relation to philosophical hermeneutics (Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur). The fact that Beckett’s artistic method invalidates the transparency of the mirror-like relation between reality and art is known, and yet the potential theoretical consequences of such a literary revolution do not seem to have been exhausted - particularly in respect to the category of the absurd. Hence, the presented inquiry aims to view the phenomenon quite against its common conceptualizations derived from existentialist philosophy in order to indicate a possible route of exploring it from a hermeneutic perspective and thereby challenging, to some extent, Simon Critchley’s (2004: 165) famous assertion that Beckett’s oeuvre seems “uniquely resistant to philosophical interpretation”.

Al-Kindī: The Founder of Philosophical Exegesis of the Qur'an

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jules Janssens
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The World

Al-Kindī is well known as the first great ‘Islamic philosopher’. In contrast to his eminent successors, i.e. al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Rushd, he adhered to the idea of a creation in time, not to that of the eternity of the world. He appears to have made this choice out of religious motives: certainly he did find support in the philosophical arguments of Philoponus, but one is inclined to believe that he accepted this point of view because of what revelation tells on this issue. However, in those works of his that have reached us, one finds almost no references to the Qur'an. In his philosophical treatises there are, as far as I can see, explicit references to Qur'anic ayas in only three texts; the first two cases refer to Q. 36:78–82, and the third to Q. 6:55. In this article, an in-depth analysis of both fragments will be given and special attention will be paid to the – apparently outspoken, philosophical – interpretation that is given. Moreover, the extent to which al-Kindī designates or does not designate God in terms derived from the Qur'an will be examined. It is hoped that in this way al-Kindī's attitude towards the Qur'an can be determined with precision.

scholarly journals Translating philosophical aesthetics: Peritext as a win­dow into the translator's mind. Part 2

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-94
Author(s):  
L. B. Boyko ◽  
◽  
A. K. Gulina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
William Hogarth ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
Mundane Practice ◽  
Made In ◽  
Technical Terms

Providing space for elucidating key translational issues is not a mundane practice but a privilege only hand-picked texts enjoy, philosophical writings among them. The challenge of translating philosophical discourse is widely recognized but scarcely explored. In this article, translation of philosophical texts is regarded as a procedure of knowledge transfer from one intellectual space into another and of knowledge-making through reconceptualization of key terms. This process is made partly observable in various types of notes — a special cluster of additional information known as translational peritext where translators are given an oppor­tunity to explicate their decisions made in the course of translation. Among translation hur­dles in philosophical discourse are technical terms which are often either in­vented or re-conceptualized by the scholar and then need to be re-contextualized by the trans­lator. Seeking to reflect on translation as a heuristic process, this paper will focus on the reso­lution of the potential cognitive dissonance and the translator’s justification of sense-oriented strategies in dealing with such key concepts as ‘connoisseur’, ‘grace’, ‘sublime’, and ‘je ne sçai quoi’ in the translation of the seminal work on the philosophy of aesthetics Analysis of Beauty by the celebrated 18th century English artist William Hogarth.

Estimation (Wahm) in Avicenna: The Logical and Psychological Dimensions

Dialogue ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Black
Keyword(s):  
Basic Question ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Perceptual Abilities ◽  
Correct Understanding ◽  
Psychological Dimensions ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
Arabic World

One of the chief innovations in medieval adaptations of Aristotelian psychology was the expansion of Aristotle's notion of imagination orphantasiato include a variety of distinct perceptual powers known collectively as the internal senses (hawâss bâtinah). Amongst medieval philosophers in the Arabic world, Avicenna (Ibn Sînâ, 980–1037) offers one of the most complex and sophisticated accounts of the internal senses. Within his list of internal senses, Avicenna includes a faculty known as “estimation” (wahm), to which various functions are assigned in a wide variety of contexts. Although many philosophers in the Arabic world as well as in the Latin West accepted Avicenna's positing of an estimative faculty, Avicenna's best-known critics, al-Ghazâlî (1058–1111) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126–1198), found Avicenna's arguments in support of a distinct estimative faculty problematic. For different reasons, both Averroes and Ghazâlî raised the basic question of whether one needed to posit a distinct faculty of estimation to supplement the perceptual abilities of the other internal senses, and whether the notion of an estimative power as defined by Avicenna was internally coherent. Such criticisms suggest that the Avicennian conception of estimation is not entirely unambiguous, and that a correct understanding of Avicenna's motivations for delineating an estimative power requires a careful study of the diverse activities assigned to it throughout Avicenna's philosophical writings.

scholarly journals A difficult history of light. About metaphysical ideas of “light writing” formulated before the birth of photography

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (39) ◽  
pp. 281-295
Author(s):  
Piotr Zawojski
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Change ◽  
Digital Form ◽  
Still Images ◽  
Image Recording ◽  
Marsilio Ficino ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
History And Theory

The reflections presented in this article are devoted to Junko Theresa Mikuriya’s book, A History of Light. The Idea of Photography. It is a unique view on the search for pre-photographic origins of photography in the field of philosophical writings ranging from Plato, through the neoplatonic philosopher Jamblich’s enquiry, to the texts by Philotheus of Batos and by an early Renaissance philosopher, Marsilio Ficino. When thinking about metaphysics present in (moving and still) images, one should not forget about the metaphysics of the image itself. The idea of photography – regardless of whether we are witnessing a fundamental change in an ontological transition from an analogue to a digital form of image recording – obliges us to discuss the “history of light”, as this is what Mikuriya does. While locating the discussed concepts in the context of the history and theory of photography, as well as the archaeology of media, the author of this essay engages in a dialogue with Mikuriya and polemically discusses many of her hypotheses. Key concepts such as chalepon, photagogia, triton genos, phôteinographeisthai are analysed in order to indicate inspiring moments in the Mikuriya’s reflections, but also a kind of interpretive abuse in the process of reading and analysing philosophical texts addressing the issues of light.

Theology in Central Asia

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Spannaus
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Philosophical School ◽  
The Status ◽  
Ibn Arabi ◽  
Modern Era

Despite its image as a cultural and intellectual backwater in later centuries, the scholarly environment in Central Asia, primarily in Bukhara and Samarqand, remained vibrant and active into the twentieth century. Theology was an important part of that environment, and this chapter addresses the evolution of the Sunni, Maturidikalāmtradition in Central Asia in the post-classical period (fifteenth to nineteenth centuries). Following earlier developments made by scholars such as Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), Ibn ‘Arabī, and Taftāzānī, questions of ontology and metaphysics, such as God’s status as the Necessary of Existence, became central for Sunnikalāmin the region. Central Asianmutakallimūnincorporated ideas from a number of sources, including these earlier scholars, as well as the Shirazi philosophical school and Ahmad Sirhindī’s Sufi reformism, to form a refined discourse for sophisticated theological reasoning. Debates over issues such as the status of God’s attributes and the nature of mundane existence flourished in public disputations and commentaries and supercommentaries on important works of theology, up until the modern era.

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