BAEcon Economics

This course unit begins with discussions on the origins of Islamic philosophy, its Greek background, and the role of the Translation Movement in the formation of this philosophical tradition. The most influential schools of Islamic philosophy and their central teachings will be introduced and discussed in this course. Moreover, this course covers some of the most well-known ideas of the main figures of Islamic philosophy such as al-Kindī, al-Fārābī, Ibs Sīnā (Avicenna), al-Ghazālī, Ib Rushd (Averroes), al-Rāzī, and al-Suhrawardī. Discussions of the reception of Islamic philosophy in medieval Latin philosophy will conclude the course unit. Some of the reading materials of the course are from primary texts whose translations are available in English and some others are selected from secondary literature on Islamic Philosophy.

The unit aims to:

• Introduce students to major schools, figures, texts, and issues of medieval Islamic philosophy;
• Acquaint students with a no-western philosophical tradition, which can be seen as a mediating link between ancient Greek philosophy and medieval/early modern Western philosophy;
• Give students an understanding of the strong interconnectedness of philosophical issues from different traditions;
• Give students the opportunity to exercise intellectual fairness, sympathy and tolerance towards different world views and intellectual traditions;
• Improve students’ skills in analysing philosophical texts, reconstructing their main arguments, and writing expository essays about them;
• Give students the opportunity to engage with the main texts of Islamic philosophy (available in English translation).

One two-hour lecture and one one-hour tutorial per week.

Students should be able to:

• Identify, explain and analyse in their own words the main schools and central issues of Islamic philosophy;
• Compare and evaluate in a reasoned way the main historical connections of Islamic philosophy to Greek philosophy and medieval/early modern Western philosophy.

Students should be able to:

• Read and interpret a wide range of primary and secondary texts in Islamic philosophy;
• Construct detailed lines of argument in support of clearly stated positions in Islamic philosophy, comparing and evaluating alternative views;
• Reflect on and compare Western and Islamic traditions of philosophical reasoning and argumentation.

Students should be able to:

• Use research tools to effectively select resources in the preparation of assessments in Islamic philosophy;
• Clearly communicate ideas about Islamic philosophy.

Essay (2000 words) 33%

Exam (2 hours) 67%

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate time is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Canvas; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

Primary Sources:

• Khalidi, Muhammad Ali. 2005. Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• McGinnis, Jon & David C. Reisman. 2007. Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
• Acar, Rahim & M. Cüneyt Kaya. 2025. Philosophy of Religion in Islam: A Reader of Classical Sources. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Secondary Sources:

• Adamson, Peter. 2007. Al-Kindī. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Adamson, Peter. 2016. Philosophy in the Islamic World: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Adamson, Peter. 2021. Al-Rāzī. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Adamson, Peter & Richard C. Taylor (eds.). 2024. The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• El-Rouayheb, Khaled. & Schmidke, Sabine. (eds.). 2016. The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Khalilizand, Mansooreh (ed.). 2024. The Attributes of God in Islamic Thought. London: Routledge.
• McGinnis, Jon. 2010. Avicenna. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Zarepour, Mohammad Saleh (ed.). 2024. Islamic Philosophy of Religion. London: Routledge.