Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400.

1998 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 1227
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Bellitto ◽  
Marcia L. Colish
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Western Intellectual

Moderation and al-Ghazali in Turkey

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
Taraneh Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Graduate Study ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Western Intellectual ◽  
Freedom Of Thought ◽  
Religious Other ◽  
Intellectual Independence

Turkish theology faculties are an important but understudied source of moderate Muslim responses to the challenges of modernity. Although it is strongly associated with questions of such Enlightenment values as tolerance and freedom of thought, modernity is also tied to skepticism, atheism, and pluralism. Thus one way to examine whether the label of “moderate” applies to a given case is to examine how such a position reflects both the positive values of modernity in addition to how it addresses modernity’s challenges. This paper deals with the resources for religious moderation found in the thought of al-Ghazali and how they are used and analyzed in modern Turkish theology faculties. By focusing on two recent works by Turkish theologians Mehmet Bayrakdar and Adnan Aslan, this paper explores skepticism, atheism, and religious pluralism. I argue that not only are both thinkers “moderate,” but that they also engage this label by using their own theological interests and interpretations of al-Ghazali. Both theologians were trained in Turkish theology faculties and did significant graduate study in Europe. Their work reflects an active engagement with the western intellectual tradition. Al-Ghazali plays a crucial – but not final – role in each of their responses to modernity and the western intellectual tradition. For Bayrakdar he functions as a symbol of Muslim intellectual independence, whereas for Aslan he serves as a fundamental resource for making sense of the religious “other.” Thus, a case is presented for the increasing relevance of Turkish theological responses to debates outside Turkey.

Moderation and al-Ghazali in Turkey

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
Taraneh Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Graduate Study ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Western Intellectual ◽  
Freedom Of Thought ◽  
Religious Other ◽  
Intellectual Independence

Turkish theology faculties are an important but understudied source of moderate Muslim responses to the challenges of modernity. Although it is strongly associated with questions of such Enlightenment values as tolerance and freedom of thought, modernity is also tied to skepticism, atheism, and pluralism. Thus one way to examine whether the label of “moderate” applies to a given case is to examine how such a position reflects both the positive values of modernity in addition to how it addresses modernity’s challenges. This paper deals with the resources for religious moderation found in the thought of al-Ghazali and how they are used and analyzed in modern Turkish theology faculties. By focusing on two recent works by Turkish theologians Mehmet Bayrakdar and Adnan Aslan, this paper explores skepticism, atheism, and religious pluralism. I argue that not only are both thinkers “moderate,” but that they also engage this label by using their own theological interests and interpretations of al-Ghazali. Both theologians were trained in Turkish theology faculties and did significant graduate study in Europe. Their work reflects an active engagement with the western intellectual tradition. Al-Ghazali plays a crucial – but not final – role in each of their responses to modernity and the western intellectual tradition. For Bayrakdar he functions as a symbol of Muslim intellectual independence, whereas for Aslan he serves as a fundamental resource for making sense of the religious “other.” Thus, a case is presented for the increasing relevance of Turkish theological responses to debates outside Turkey.

History of Artificial Intelligence Before Computers

2011 ◽  
pp. 1763-1768
Author(s):  
Bruce MacLennan
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Machine Intelligence ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Research Project ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Intellectual ◽  
Symbolic Ai

The history of artificial intelligence (AI) is commonly supposed to begin with Turing’s (1950) discussions of machine intelligence, and to have been defined as a field at the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. However, the ideas on which AI is based, and in particular those on which symbolic AI (see below) is based, have a very long history in the Western intellectual tradition, dating back to ancient Greece (see also McCorduck, 2004). It is important for modern researchers to understand this history for it reflects problematic assumptions about the nature of knowledge and cognition: assumptions that can impede the progress of AI if accepted uncritically.

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