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

You will be invited to participate via email post the event.

or alternatively email:

info@jkn.org.uk