Course Catalog

Course Description

The works of Plato offer an accessible and enjoyable way to begin thinking critically about one’s life. This course takes after Socrates’ famous saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and gives participants an opportunity to reflect on such questions as, “Can someone learn to be a good person?” “What are beauty and love?” “How do we know what knowledge is?” “What is the soul?” and many, many more. Plato’s writings facilitate the exploration of these questions because they are written in the form of dialogues, with various philosophical positions being embodied by the characters of each dialogue. As we read the dialogues, we become aware of different ways of answering these fundamental questions and, by extension, different ways of approaching life.

The course uses the dialogues between Plato’s characters as a launching pad for a dialogue between students themselves. The method of this class is not a lecture. It is an extension of the dialogue that Plato has started. After an opening question from the instructor (usually one that Plato himself is asking), students speak freely among themselves without raising their hands. The instructor guides the discussion through questioning and prompting students to challenge their own assumptions. There is no fixed course or conclusion to these conversations, and they often diverge and meander through other topics before returning to the original question. At best, these conversations lead to a collective realization among everyone in the group; at least, they enable students to have a deeper appreciation of the dimensions of the question.

In addition to offering students an opportunity to personally explore the fundamental questions of life, this course also familiarizes students with one of the most important philosophers of the Western and Islamic traditions (yes, both). There are few philosophers who have exercised such a decisive influence on the subsequent path of philosophy. From Stoics like Epictetus, to Christians like Aquinas, to Muslims like Fārābī, to Germans like Nietsche, Plato is and will remain an interlocutor in the philosophical conversation. Students who wish to pursue further studies in philosophy will greatly benefit from this familiarity with Plato.

Course Duration—Two semesters

Course Objectives—Student will:

• have a deeper appreciation for their own views (or lack of view) on life’s most fundamental questions,

• be conscious of the considerations that drive people to adopt various philosophical positions and understand the pros and cons of each position,

• be able to engage in conversation about fundamental philosophical questions with compassion, sophistication, and control, and

• be able to detect the philosophical perspectives underlying ideas and messages that are not explicitly philosophical.

Course Description

Formal logic is the science that prevents us from making mistakes in our reasoning. It protects us from using vague terms, false premises, and fallacious arguments and from falling victim to these mistakes when we hear them from others. When we are tricked by fallacies, we end up harboring false and inconsistent beliefs while thinking that we know what we do not know. In order to avoid this, students of logic study the principles of valid conception, assent, and reasoning. By applying these principles to their own ideas and those of others, they are able to filter out the distracting fallacies around them and pursue the truth with clarity and validity.

Moreover, Islamic scholarly texts adhere invariably to the rules of formal logic, and they are replete with the Arabic logic terminology that students will learn in this course. A study of formal logic in Arabic is, therefore, indispensable for accessing the texts of the Islamic scholarly tradition.

This course introduces students to the Arabic logic tradition (manṭiq) through a close reading the Mirqāt of Faḍl-i Imām al-Khayrabādī (d. 1827-8). Khayrabādī was a leading scholar of the rational sciences (al-ʿulūm al-ʿaqlīyah), and his Mirqāt represents the culmination of logic primers in the Avicennan tradition. Students will learn the main terms of the Arabic tradition of formal logic in its broad division into concepts (taṣawwurāt) and propositions (taṣdīqāt). We will draw on supplementary material from the greater Arabic logic tradition as well as material from the Western tradition to further our discussions.

Course Duration—One semester

Course Objectives—Students will:

• be able to recall the terminology, concepts, and rules of logic as described in the Arabic-Islamic tradition,

• be able to create their own definitions and syllogisms and to demonstrate their formal validity through the application of logical terminology and principles,

• detect, identify, and refute formal and material fallacies,

• understand the ways in which an argument that is valid formally may still remain inconclusive materially, and

• understand the ways in which someone may still disagree with a formally valid argument and how someone may respond to this disagreement.

[Prerequisite: Arabic reading fluency recommended]

Course Description

Kalām is the science dedicated to the establishment of Islamic doctrines through demonstrative proofs and refutation of objections. After laying the metaphysical and epistemological groundwork for the defense of Islamic doctrine, kalām then seeks to prove the existence of God and to explain the nature of His attributes. Beyond this basic theology, which applies equally to all monotheists, kalām goes on to establish the prophethood of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and thereby to distinguish Islam from other monotheistic religions. Lastly, kalām also addresses debates that took place within Muslim circles about, for example, the nature of the Qurʾān, free will, and the beatific vision of God in the afterlife. In this way, studying kalām involves a movement from the most extreme disagreements about metaphysics and God’s existence to the smallest minutiae of intra-Islamic polemics.

This course explores kalām through the Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafīyah, Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī’s (d. 792/1390) commentary on Najm al-Dīn al-Nasafī’s (d. 537/1142) matn on Islamic creed. This is one of the most important textbooks in the postclassical Islamic world, in the Ottoman and Mughal empires in particular. An awareness of its contents is indispensable for engagement with Islamic theology.

As a guided reading, the course focuses on analyzing the text of the Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid itself with only that degree of commentary necessary to bring students into conversation with the author. Class sessions will include, first, a reading and translation of the text by the instructor and, second, a brief commentary on the grammatical and logical structure of the text. After this didactic portion of the session, students are encouraged to ask questions and discuss the ideas of the text with both the instructor and themselves.  The purpose is to familiarize ourselves with the text and to use this familiarity to bring the conversation of kalām to life in the classroom.

Course Duration—Two semesters

Course Objectives—Students will:

• be familiar with the logical structure of kalām theology from the refutation of sophistry to epistemology to natural philosophy to theology to prophetology and finally to revealed doctrines,

• be able to explain the kalām cosmological argument, the argument by correspondence, the argument by mutual incompatibility, and several other arguments important to the kalām tradition,

• be familiar with the key areas of disagreement between the major theological schools in Islam, most importantly the Ashʿarīs, the Māturīdīs, and the Muʿtazilah,

• be able to compare, contrast, and assess the arguments and counterarguments of these schools, and

• be familiar with the structure, style, and content of the ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafīyah and its commentary by Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī.

[Prerequisite: Arabic reading fluency required]

Course Description

This course is a study of selected passages from the works of the Proof of Islam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī. Ghazālī is a deep, multifaceted, and intimately relatable scholar of Islam. We will read his autobiography, the Deliverance from Error, where we will learn about Ghazālī’s own struggle with skepticism, his encounter with various Muslim groups, and his journey from the confusion to comfort. We will then explore Ghazālī’s metaphysics in the Niche of Lights (Mishkāt al-Anwār), his spirituality in sections of the Revival of the Religious (Iḥyāʿ ʾUlūm al-Dīn), and his advice to young people in the O Son! (Ayyuhā al-Walad).

The first half of each session will be dedicated to a summary and brief analysis of the assigned text by the instructor. The second half will be an open Q&A and group discussion.

[The texts for this course will be limited to those available in English translation.]

Course Duration—One semester

Course Objectives—Students will:

• gain insights into the Islamic worldview that benefit their spiritual connection to Islam and enrich their relationship with Allāh,

• discover the joy of reading Islamic literature, and the joy of reading generally,

• develop a relationship with Ghazālī, his books, his approach to life as a Muslim, and the inner dimensions of his spirituality,

• consider practical tips that can help them navigate the challenges on the spiritual path, and

• be familiar with some of the main ideas that characterize Ghazālī’s thought.

[Prerequisite: Arabic reading fluency not required. Students who can read Arabic are encouraged to use the Arabic editions.]

Course Description

The Hidāyah of Burhān al-Dīn al-Marghīnānī is one of the most beautifully and intricately constructed texts in the tradition of Ḥanafī jurisprudence. The text is a dense and lush forest of definitions, syllogisms, and counterarguments. The purpose of this course is to assist students of Islamic jurisprudence in analyzing the grammatical and, more centrally, logical structure of this text.

As an applied logic course, the class will equip students with the logical terminology and analytical reading skills they need to dissect Marghīnānī’s famous text. At first, sessions will involve the analysis of perhaps only one argument or section of the text. Students will encounter new logical terminology and learn to identify key structural markers in the text, those little connecting words that you might miss if you are not paying attention. As the course progresses, students will become increasingly comfortable and fluent in this type of grammatical and logical analysis. The aim is for students to gain those skills they need to open the Hidāyah and read without the assistance of the instructor, for the instructor has only completed his job when he is no longer needed.

Course Duration—One semester

Course Objectives—Students will:

• be adept at analyzing the structure of Marghīnānī’s text by distinguishing between the claims of the jurists (whether Abū Ḥanīfah, his students, or al-Shāfiʿī), their scriptural arguments, their rational arguments, and the refutations of each of these,

• be able to apply formal Arabic logic terminology to the Hidāyah, thereby enabling a critical engagement with the text and an assessment of the merits of its arguments, and

• will understand the most common formal logical structures used by Marghīnānī in the Hidāyah.

[Prerequisite: Arabic reading fluency required]