What is covered:- What is philosophy? Why study philosophy? Meaning and definition Objectives and Modern Day Implications An understanding of the relevance of philosophy today and its relationship with Islam

2. An Introductory Course
On Perspectives Of
Western
And Islamic Philosophy

3. Lecture 1/9
Introduction to Philosophy

4. Agenda
•Initiate session10:25
•About the lectures10:25 – 10:40
•Western perspectives10:40 – 11:25
•Break11:25 – 11:40
•Islamic perspectives11:40 – 12:25
•Questions and answers12:25 – 13:00

5. The Lectures
A total of nine lectures are anticipated to be delivered on
a monthly basis over a period of nine consecutive months
Each of the lectures shall provide a rudimentary
understanding of various philosophical concepts
Please refer to the provided handbook for further details

6. Sessions Date and Time Subject Matter
Western
Perspectives
Islamic
Perspectives
1 of 9
24th August 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
Introduction to philosophy
What is philosophy?
Why study philosophy?
Meaning and definition
2 of 9
21st September 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
What can we know? Knowledge
[Epistemology 1/2]
What is knowing?
What is knowledge?
Belief, truth and evidence
The sources and concepts of knowledge,
reason and experience
3 of 9
19th October 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
What is the world like?
Perceiving the World
[Epistemology 2/2]
Realism
Idealism
Our knowledge of the physical world
4 of 9
23rd November 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
The way the world works
Scientific Knowledge
[Philosophy of Science]
Laws of nature
Explanation
Theories
Possibility
The problem of induction
5 of 9
21st December 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
What is and what must be?
Freedom and Necessity
[Metaphysics]
Causality
Determinism and freedom
6 of 9
18th January 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
What am I?
Mind and Body
[Philosophy of Mind]
The physical and the mental,
The relationship between the physical and the mental,
Materialism
7 of 9
15th February 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
What else is there? [Philosophy
of Religion 1/2]
Ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence of
God
8 of 9
22th March 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
What else is there? [Philosophy
of Religion 2/2]
The concept of God
The problem of evil
Religious concepts
9 of 9
19th April 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
The is and the ought
[Problems in Ethics]
Meta-ethics
Theories of goodness
Theories of conduct

7. The Objective
The primary aim and overall objective, among
other subsidiary benefits, is to assist in
familiarising and acquainting its recipients with
the conceptual [and intellectual] perils,
predominantly encountered by religion in todays
society, which are propelled by [or in the name
of] philosophy.

8. What is Philosophy?
Philosophy
[1]
Philosophy is a set of
views or beliefs about
life and the universe,
which are often held
uncritically.
[2]
Philosophy is a process
of reflecting on and
criticizing our most
deeply held
conceptions and beliefs.
[3]
Philosophy is a rational
attempt to look at the
world as a whole.

9. What is Philosophy?
Philosophy
[4]
Philosophy is the logical
analysis of language and
the clarification of the
meaning of words and
concepts.
[5]
Philosophy is a group of
perennial problems that
interest people and for
which philosophers always
have sought answers.

10. Main Branches of Philosophy
Philosophy
Metaphysics
Epistemology
Ethics
Logic
Cosmology
Theodicy
Political
Philosophy
Aesthetics

11. Main Branches of Philosophy
• The most abstract part of philosophy, having to do
with the features of ultimate reality, what really exists
and what it is that distinguishes and makes it possible.
Metaphysics
• Or the theory of knowledge, is that branch of
philosophy concerned with the nature of knowledge,
its possibility, scope and general basis.
Epistemology
• An investigation into the fundamental principles and
basic concepts that are or ought to be found in a given
field of human thought and activity.
Ethics
• The study of the structure and principles of reasoning
or of sound argument.Logic

12. Main Branches of Philosophy
• Often considered a subdivision of metaphysics, that deals with
the Universe as a totality of phenomena, attempting to combine
metaphysical speculation and scientific evidence within a
coherent framework.
Cosmology
• Attempts to justify the ways of God to men by
solving the problem that evil presents to the
theist.
Theodicy
• Evaluates social organisation, especially
government, from an ethical viewpoint.
Political
Philosophy
• Deals with the arts, and with other situations
that involve aesthetic experience and aesthetic
value.
Aesthetics

13. Why Study Philosophy?
It is part of the intellectual
baggage that we carry with us—
whether we know it or not—so
we may as well become
acquainted with it!
Philosophy is to be studied, not
for the sake of any definite
answers to its questions since no
definite answers can, as a rule,
be known to be true, but rather
for the sake of the questions
themselves.
Above all because, through the
greatness of the universe which
philosophy contemplates, the
mind also is rendered great, and
becomes capable of that union
with the universe which
constitutes its highest good.

14. Meaning and Definition
Sloppy or misleading use of ordinary language can seriously
limit our ability to create and communicate correct reasoning
The achievement of human knowledge is often hampered by
the use of words without fixed signification
Needless controversy is sometimes produced and
perpetuated by an unacknowledged ambiguity in the
application of key terms

15. Definition of TruthTruth
Facts about the way the world is. Not the
statements we make about the world or
our thoughts about it.
The best known theory for truth is the
correspondence theory. On this view, a
candidate for truth is true if and only if it
‘corresponds to the facts’.

16. Necessary and Contingent Statements
Necessary
• A proposition is said
to be necessarily true,
or to express a
logically necessary
truth, iff the denial of
that proposition
would involve a self-
contradiction.
Contingent
• A proposition which
happens to be
contingently true, or
express a logically
contingent truth, is
one which could
nevertheless be
denied, or asserted,
without self-
contradiction.

17. Examples of Necessary
and Contingent Statements
• All triangles are three sided
• All Bachelors are unmarried
• All grandmothers are mothers
Necessary Statements
• It is not raining
• George Washington was the first President of the US
• It often rains in the United Kingdom
Contingent Statements

18. Application of Necessity to the
Existence of God
Does God
Exist
Necessarily?
YES
Its denial should
then result in a
self-contradiction
NO
It divests God of
His essential
attributes

19. BREAK
[15 Minutes]

20. Islamic
Perspective

21. What is Philosophy
Philosophy
Geometry and
Arithmetic
Logic
Ontology
Physiology

22. The Schools of Philosophers According to
Imām al-Ghazālī [ra]
Materialists
[Dahrīyūn]
• They deny the Creator
and Disposer of the
world, Omniscient and
Omnipotent, and
consider that the world
has everlastingly
existed just as it is, of
itself without a creator.
Naturalists
[Ṭabī’yūn]
• They see the sufficient
wonders of God’s
creation and the
inventions of His
Wisdom to compel
them to acknowledge a
Wise Creator. However,
it is their view that the
soul dies and does not
return to life, and they
deny the future life,
heaven, hell,
resurrection, and
judgement.
Theists
[Ilāhīyūn]
• They refuted the
systems of the two
others, i.e. the
Materialists and the
Naturalists; but in
exposing their
mistaken and perverse
beliefs, they made use
of arguments which
they should have
refrained from.

23. View of the Scholars of Islam on
Philosophy
• “My ruling regarding the people of theological rhetoric is that they should be
beaten with palm leaves and shoes and be paraded amongst the kinsfolk and
the tribes with it being announced, ‘This is the reward of the one who
abandons the Book and the Sunnah and turns to theological rhetoric (kalaam).”
Imām ash-Shā’fī [ra]
• “There is nothing more despised by me than 'ilmul-kalaam (philosophy and
rhetoric).”
Imām ad-Dāraqutnī [ra]
• “Know that the Imaams of Ahlus-Sunnah have persistently been writing works
censuring `Ilm al-Kalaam (rhetoric and philosophy) , and censuring those who
pursue it.”
Imām as-Sūyūtī [ra]

24. Why Study Philosophy?
[a]
• “This has come to be needed for because of the new
innovations”
[b]
• “Convinced that to dream of refuting a doctrine before having
thoroughly comprehended it was like shooting at an object in the
dark, I devoted myself zealously to the study of philosophy”
[c]
• “Had the innovator left his nonsense, there would have been no
need for anything more than what was familiar during the age of
the holy companions “Allah be pleased with them”

25. Why Study Philosophy?
“I was convinced that a man cannot
grasp what is defective in any of the
sciences unless he has so complete a
grasp of the science in question that
he equals its most learned exponents
in the appreciation of its fundamental
principles . . . Then and only then is it
possible that what he has to assert
about its defects is true.”

26. Definition of Knowledge &
Truth
Eternal Knowledge:
An attribute of the Creator, the Exalted, inherent in His essence and connected
to the infinitude of things known.
Necessary Knowledge:
Is contingent knowledge
that is associated with
either harm or need and
over which the servant
has no power.
Self-Evident
Knowledge:
Is like the necessary
except it is not
associated with
harm or need.
Acquired
Knowledge:
Is contingent
knowledge that is
dependant on
contingent power.
Temporally Produced
Knowledge

27. Limitations of the Application of
‘Necessity’
Abstract Metal Objects:
Concepts/Meanings
Necessary
Truths
Perceivable
Physical Reality
Human
Mind/Cognitive
Ability
Influence/ability to govern

28. Limitations of the Application of
‘Necessity’
Human Mind
“Possible”
“Impossible”“Necessary”

29. Application of Necessity to the
Existence of God
Predicates such as “possible”, “impossible”, and “necessary”
do not apply to objects outside of our mind. This thought may
appear to be exactly what we mean by necessary truths being
a priori, where they are free from observation or experience.
It’s not as such actually, since this line of thought would entail
that it’s not something in reality which confers necessity on
the statements but rather necessary truths cannot be about
the world nor have they the potential to explain any real
existence or real event, but can only reveal features of, or
relations among, abstract or mental objects such as concepts
or meanings. They don’t possess the potential to govern
reality in any way but can only determine how we think, infer,
make judgments, or speak about reality.

30. Application of Necessity to the
Existence of God
“If, on the other hand, it is a necessary truth that God
exists, this must be a necessary truth that explains a real
existence (God’s); indeed it provides the ultimate
explanation of all real existence, since God is the creator
of everything else that really exists. Thus if God’s
existence follows from his essence in such a way as to be
necessary, his essence is no mere logicians’ plaything
but a supremely powerful cause. This is a scandal for the
view that necessary truths cannot determine or explain
reality”.
Adams (1983)

31. NEXT LECTURE
EPISTEMOLOGY
What can we know?
Knowledge
21/09/2014
10:15—13:00

32. You will be invited to participate
via email post the event.
or
alternatively email:
info@jkn.org.uk