Islamic Philosophy (Course Syllabus)

1. Introduction
   1. Islamic Hikma and its Meaning
   2. Relation between Religion (Islam) and Philosophy
   3. Apologetics, Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism
   4. Background of Islamic Philosophy
   5. Main themes in Islamic Philosophy
   6. The Goal of Islamic Philosophy
2. Historical Stages, Schools and Philosophers
   1. Early Kalami Discussions
   2. The Movement of Translation
   3. The First Muslim Philosophers and al-Kandi
   4. Al-Farabi (the First Muslim thinker with a comprehensive philosophical system)
   5. Al-Razi & the Brethren of Purity
   6. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) the Culmination of the Islamic Peripatetic Philosophy
   7. Ibn Miskawayh and Al-Ghazali
   8. Suhriwardi  and the school of Ishraq (illumination)
   1. Averroes, the Commentator of Aristotle
   10. (Ibn Masarra, Ibn Baja, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Sab’in, Ibn Khaldun)
   11. Nasir al-din al-Tusi and Mir Damad
   50. Mulla Sadra and the Transcendent Philosophy
   1000. Contemporary strands
3. Main Themes and Problems
   1. Theoretical Philosophy
      1. Ontology: Existence and Quiddity
   2. Causality
   3. Motion
   4. Epistemology
      1. First Self-evident propositions

1. 4. 2. Mental Existence
      3. Universal and Particular
      4. Sense, Imagination and Intellect
   5. Three Subjects and Corresponding Discussions:
      1. Man:
         1. Immortality and the Hereafter

1. 5. 2. Cosmos:
         1. Finite or Infinite
         2. Created in Time or Eternal in Time
      3. God, Philosophical Theology
         1. Existence of God
         2. Divine Attributes
   6. Reason and Revelation or Science and Religion
   7. Practical Philosophy
      1. Individual
         1. Predestination/Determinism vs. Free will
         2. Rational basis of Moral Judgment

3. 1. 2. Political Philosophy and the Utopia 
4. Logic and the Consolidation of Aristotelian Logic in the Muslim World
5. Side Discussions
   1. Combination of Islam and Philosophy
   2. Different Muslim Reactions to Philosophy
      1. Rejection as heresy

5. 1. 2. Reception as a tool for interpretation of religious concepts
      3. Reception as an apologetic tool
6. Comparative Studies