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An Introductory Course
On Perspectives Of
Western
And Islamic Philosophy
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
Sessions Date and Time Subject Matter Western
Perspectives
Islamic
Perspectives
1 of 924th August 2014
10:15am - 1.00pmIntroduction to philosophy
What is philosophy?
Why study philosophy?
Meaning and definition
2 of 921st 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 919th 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 923rd 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 921st December 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
What is and what must be?
Freedom and Necessity
[Metaphysics]
Causality
Determinism and freedom
6 of 918th 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 915th 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 922th 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 919th April 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
The is and the ought
[Problems in Ethics]
Meta-ethics
Theories of goodness
Theories of conduct
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.
Lecture 2/9
Epistemology
What we anticipate to cover in this session
What is epistemology?
What’s its point?
What is knowing and knowledge?
Belief, truth and evidence
The sources of knowledge
Agenda
• Initiate session 10:25
•About the lectures10:25 – 10:40
•Western perspectives 10:40 – 11:25
•Break11:25 – 11:40
• Islamic perspectives 11:40 – 12:25
•Questions and answers12:25 – 13:00
What is Epistemology?
Epistemology
[1]
It comes from the Greek words episteme(knowledge) and logos
(theory).
[2]
Epistemology literally means to reason about knowledge
[3]
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy
which studies the nature of knowledge
and truth.
[4]
Defined narrowly, epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief.
What is Epistemology Concerned with?
Epistemology
As the study of knowledge, epistemology is concerned with the following questions
What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of
knowledge?
What are its sources?
What is its structure, and what are its limits?
What’s the Point in Studying it
It is required in order to be able to determine the true from the false, by determining a proper
method of evaluation
It is needed in order to use and obtain knowledge of the world
around us
Without epistemology, we could not think
More specifically, we would have no reason to believe our
thinking was productive or correct, as opposed to random
images flashing before our mind
What is KnowledgeTh
e d
efin
itio
n in
volv
es t
hre
e co
nd
itio
ns
and
ph
iloso
ph
ers
say
that
wh
en a
per
son
mee
ts t
hes
e th
ree
con
dit
ion
s, t
hey
can
say
th
ey k
no
w s
om
eth
ing
to b
e tr
ue
1.The person believes the statement to be true
2.The statement is in fact true
3.The person is justified in believing the statement to be
true
The Three Conditions for Knowledge
Belief
• The epistemic attitude of holding a proposition þ to be true where there is some degree of evidence, though not conclusive evidence, for the truth of þ.
Truth
• Conformity with facts, agreement with reality. The proper contrast is with falsity.
Justification
• If the seed of knowledge is belief, what turns belief into knowledge? This is where justification comes in (some philosophers use the term “warrant” to refer to this element). A person knows something if they’re justified in believing it to be true (and, of course, it actually is true).
Descartes’ AnalysisDescartes decided that it would be sufficient to subject the foundations of his belief system to doubt and the rest of the structure will "crumble of its own accord."
He first considers the things he came to believe by way of the five senses. For most of us these are pretty stable items but Descartes found that it was rather easy to doubt their truth. The biggest problem is that sometimes the senses can be deceptive.
Next he looked at mathematics. If certainly is to be found, it must be here. However, suppose there is an evil genius, he thought, that is “supremely powerful and clever” and was bent upon deceiving Descartes and developed mathematics as a device to carry out his evil deceptions
He found that he could be sceptical about everything and was unable to find a certain foundation for knowledge. But then he hit upon something that changed modern epistemology. He discovered that there was one thing he couldn’t doubt: the fact that he was a thinking thing.
Question
BREAK[15 Minutes]
Islamic Perspective
What is Knowledge?
Knowledge
[1]
Knowledge is the recognition if the thing known as it
really is
[2]
knowledge is what causes the one who
has it to be knowledgeable [3]
knowledge is what permits the one
characterized as having knowledge to do an act masterfully and
perfectly
Defining Knowledge
[1]
• What is intended is that discerning be ascribed to the apprehending of the knowable after having ignored or disregarded it because, at that point, the one who comes to know what he did not says, “I can now discern it.”
[2]
• We disapprove defining knowledge as that which causes its subjects to be knowledgeable. He purpose in a definition is to distinguish precisely the object to be defined, whereas this is a generality since its applications and examples cover every expression that a person might want to define.
[3]
• It is not correct as well to define knowledge as that through which the person so described achieves mastery because knowing impossibilities and the eternal and enduring existences do not entitle the person described as knowing these things to any sort of mastery.
Imām al – Ghazālī’s Analysis of Knowledge
Sense Data
• Sense Perception
Rational Data
• Intellect or Reason
Reason Judge
• Intuition
Revelation
Sources of Knowledge
• The visual sense can be so untrustworthy, thus, how can we trust the authority of other senses.
Sense Perception
• While sleeping a man sees and imagines a number of things and circumstances which he believes to be stable and enduring and he has no doubt in them so far as he is in a dream-condition.
• When he awakens, he realises his beliefs to be unfounded.
Intellect or Reason
• Then the reason-judge came along and gave me the lie. But were it not for the reason-judge, you would still accept me as true. So there may be, beyond the perception of reason, another judge. And if the latter revealed itself, it would give the lie to the judgments of reason, just as the reason-judge revealed itself and gave the lie to the judgments of sense.
Intuition
Infallible Knowledge
This did not come about by systematic demonstration or marshalled argument, but by a light which God most high cast into my breast. That light is the key to the greater
part of knowledge. Whoever thinks that the understanding of things Divine rests upon strict proofs has in his thought narrowed down the wideness of God’s mercy. When
the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) was asked about `enlarging’ (sharh) and its meaning in the verse, `Whenever God wills to guide a man, He enlarges his breast for
Islam (i.e. surrender to God)’ (Q. 6, 125), he said, `It is a light which God most high casts into the heart’. When asked, `What is the sign of it?’, he said, `Withdrawal from
the mansion of deception and return to the mansion of eternity.’ It was about this light that Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, `God created the creatures in darkness, and then sprinkled upon them some of His light.’ From that light must be sought an intuitive understanding of things Divine. That light at certain times gushes from the
spring of Divine generosity, and for it one must watch and wait as Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: `In the days of your age your Lord has gusts of favour; then place
yourselves in the way of them’.
NEXT LECTUREWhat is the world like?
Perceiving the World[Epistemology 2/2]
19/10/201410:15—13:00
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