Philosophy in the Islamic World Without Any Gaps

2017.02.28 In a series of podcasts, now published as a book, Peter Adamson attempts to tell the story of philosophy in the Islamic world "without any gaps.” The goal is to include all authors and texts from the Islamic world worthy of historical consideration. More an ambition than a feasible goal, this editorial curatorship raises numerous questions. Is this really the story of philosophy only among Muslims, or also among Jews and Christians? To what extent did philosophy undergo a "decline" after the classical era as is so often alleged? Does Islamic theology (kalām) fall within the scope of this inquiry? This lecture explores these methodological issues by way of illustrative examples drawn from a wide chronological and geographical range. Speaker Peter Adamson Professor of Philosophy, LMU Munich