Churchill College, University of Cambridge, UK

Islamic Philosophy

Subject Editor

Oliver Leaman,

Liverpool John Moores University, UK.

Islamic Philosophy

Much of the work which has taken place on Islamic philosophy until quite recently was based upon the idea that it more-or-less came to an end with the death of Averroes (ibn Rushd) in the twelfth century AD, and is interesting chiefly because of its effect upon the development of philosophy and science in medieval Christian Europe. This rather orientalist account of Islamic philosophy is challenged in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Islamic philosophy is treated as an important and living tradition of philosophy. It represents today, as in the past, the philosophical thought of the Islamic community. Although it is true that much of that thought has had an important impact upon intellectual developments outside the Islamic world, it would be wrong to see that as the main contribution of Islamic philosophy.

Muslims quite naturally seek to understand the nature of reality using the formal procedures of philosophy, and they often wish to see how they can encapsulate that reality using both philosophy and the various bases of religious authority in Islam.

As one would expect, there is not just one school of thought here, but a very diverse community of thinkers who vary both in their particular Islamic background and in their adherence to particular philosophical approaches. In devoting 56 entries to representing the variety of Islamic philosophy, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy acknowledges its significance. Muslims will find that a wide range of their coreligionists’ thought is described and discussed here, and they will see the important role that Islamic philosophy has in the development of world philosophy.

The entries on Islamic philosophy look at the work of individual thinkers and also at topics which relate to law, politics and cultural life in general, so that we find here a treatment of Islamic philosophy in its widest perspective, as both a cause and effect of the life of Islam itself.