History of Islamic Philosophy, Volume 1, Part 1

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Routledge, 1996 - Philosophy - 1211 pages
Islamic philosophy has often been treated as mainly of historical interest, belonging to the history of ideas rather than to philosophy. This volume challenges this belief, and provides an indispensable reference tool. It includes:
* Detailed discussions of the most important figures from earliest times to the present day
* Chapters on key concepts in Islamic philosophy, and on relevant traditions in Greek and western philosophy
* Contributions by 50 leading experts in the field, from over 16 countries
* Analysis of a vast geographical area with discussions of Arabic, Persian, Indian, Jewish, Turkish and South East Asian philosophy
* Comprehensive bibliographical information and an extensive index
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, Washington D.C. He has held academic positions across the United States, as well as in Beirut and Tehran. He has written extensively on many aspects of Islamic philosophy; his work has been translated into over 20 languages. Oliver Leaman is a Reader in Philosophy at Liverpool's John Moores University and has published widely on Islamic philosophy and the philosophy of religion.

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About the author (1996)

Born in Tehran, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the son of an educator, received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1958, after which he returned to Iran to teach and eventually to become a university chancellor. He was compelled to leave his native country after the revolution of 1979 and since then has taught in universities in the United States. Deeply influenced by the mystical Sufi tradition, Nasr is less concerned with reconciling the faith with modernism and is more concerned with presenting a traditionalist, though mystical, interpretation of religion that offers a way out of the contradictions of modernity. Through authentic spiritual experience, Nasr holds, one can penetrate the superficiality of modern scientific and other knowledge to find eternal truth. He is associated with the neotraditionalist school of philosophy. Undoubtedly, Nasr has had more general influence in the Western philosophical world than any other contemporary philosopher in the Islamic tradition.

Oliver Leaman is Professor of Philosophy and Zantker Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of An Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy (2001), Evil and Suffering in Jewish Philosophy (1995), and is editor of Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy ( 2001) and Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film (2001). He is co-editor, with Glennys Howarth, of Encyclopedia of Death and Dying (2001).

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