511579 - HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM

courses

ID:

511579

Duration (hours):

36

CFU:

SSD:

STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA MEDIEVALE

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 22/05/2026)

Course Objectives

The course aims to offer an overview of the issues that formed the core of the philosophical debate during the formative period of the falsafa (9th-12th centuries) through the lens of the “Epistle on the Return (al-maʿād)”, a work by the Persian philosopher and physician Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, c.980-1037). The analysis of these issues will allow students to understand the theoretical questions that were at the centre of the reflections not only of philosophers but also of theologians in the Islamic world, such as the nature of the soul and its return to the First Principle, i.e., God. At the end of the course, students will have acquired a solid understanding of the main issues and actors of the formative period of the falsafa, i.e., Arabic Peripateticism.

Course Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required for attending this course. However, a basic knowledge of the history of medieval philosophy may be helpful.

Teaching Methods

Lectures with reading and analysis of the works covered in the course in Italian translation. Active participation by students will be encouraged. Students could also guide the reading of some texts by preparing individual presentations (not compulsory).

Assessment Methods

Oral exam at the end of the course. Active participation during the course will contribute to the final assessment.

Texts

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THOSE ATTENDING LECTURES (1-4): (1) Francesca Lucchetta, Avicenna. Epistola sulla vita futura, Antenore, Padova 1969 (read ALSO the INTRODUCTION, pp. xi-lxvi). (2) Tariq Jaffer, «Bodies, Souls and Resurrection in Avicenna’s ar-Risāla al-Adhawīya fī amr al-maʿād», in Before and After Avicenna: Proceedings of the First Conference of the Avicenna Study Group, ed. D. Reisman with the assistance of A. H. al-Rahim, Brill, Leiden 2003, 163-174. (3) J./Y. Michot, La destinée de l’homme selon Avicenne, Peeters, Louvain 1986, 1-56 (ONLY the introduction and the first chapter). (4) An article among the following: (a) Tommaso Alpina, «The Soul of, the Soul in Itself, and the Flying Man Experiment», in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 28.2 (2018), 187-224. (b) Tommaso Alpina, «Life, Soul, or Both? Falsafa vs. Kalām in Avicenna’s Psychology», in Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 3 (2025), 399-416. (c) Davlat Dadikhuda, «The Necessity of the Return (al-maʿād): Avicenna on the Posthumous States of the Human Soul in Aḍḥawiyya 6-7», in M. Rustom (ed.), Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation. Texts and Studies in Honor of William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata, Brill, Leiden – Boston 2022, 298-310. (d) Thérèse-Anne Druart, «The Human Soul’s Individuation and Its Survival after the Body’s Death: Avicenna on the Causal Relation between Body and Soul», in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 10 (2000), 259–273. (e) Michael E. Marmura, «Avicenna and the Kalām», in Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 7 (1991-1992), 172-206. (f) Michael E. Marmura, «Some Questions regarding Avicenna’s Theory of Temporal Origination of the Human Rational Soul», in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 18 (2008), 121‐138. (g) S. N. Mousavian, S. H. S. Mostafavi, «Avicenna on the Origination of the Human Soul», in Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 5 (2017), 41–86. * * * BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THOSE NOT ATTENDING LECTURES (1-4): (1) Francesca Lucchetta, Avicenna. Epistola sulla vita futura, Antenore, Padova 1969 (read ALSO the INTRODUCTION, pp. xi-lxvi). (2) Tariq Jaffer, «Bodies, Souls and Resurrection in Avicenna’s ar-Risāla al-Adhawīya fī amr al-maʿād», in Before and After Avicenna: Proceedings of the First Conference of the Avicenna Study Group, ed. D. Reisman with the assistance of A. H. al-Rahim, Brill, Leiden 2003, 163-174. (3) J./Y. Michot, La destinée de l’homme selon Avicenne, Peeters, Louvain 1986, 1-56 (ONLY the introduction and the first chapter). (4) Three articles among the following: (a) Tommaso Alpina, «The Soul of, the Soul in Itself, and the Flying Man Experiment», in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 28.2 (2018), 187-224. (b) Tommaso Alpina, «Life, Soul, or Both? Falsafa vs. Kalām in Avicenna’s Psychology», in Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 3 (2025), 399-416. (c) Davlat Dadikhuda, «The Necessity of the Return (al-maʿād): Avicenna on the Posthumous States of the Human Soul in Aḍḥawiyya 6-7», in M. Rustom (ed.), Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation. Texts and Studies in Honor of William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata, Brill, Leiden – Boston 2022, 298-310. (d) Thérèse-Anne Druart, «The Human Soul’s Individuation and Its Survival after the Body’s Death: Avicenna on the Causal Relation between Body and Soul», in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 10 (2000), 259–273. (e) Michael E. Marmura, «Avicenna and the Kalām», in Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 7 (1991-1992), 172-206. (f) Michael E. Marmura, «Some Questions regarding Avicenna’s Theory of Temporal Origination of the Human Rational Soul», in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 18 (2008), 121‐138. (g) S. N. Mousavian, S. H. S. Mostafavi, «Avicenna on the Origination of the Human Soul», in Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 5 (2017), 41–86.

The problem of human afterlife between philosophy (falsafa) and Islamic theology (kalām): Ibn Sīnā and the “Epistle on the Return (al-maʿād)”. The course aims to show how Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, d. 1037), one of the representatives of the falsafa (or Arab Peripateticism) in the formative period, accounts for the human afterlife and, at the same time, the principles out of which the human being is composed, namely soul and body. Following Aristotle, Ibn Sīnā considers organic sensible substances as hylemorphic compounds consisting of a form, i.e., the soul, and a matter, i.e., the body. In outlining his position, Ibn Sīnā engages with the contemporary debate between philosophers (falāsifa) and theologians (mutakallimūn), who were questioning the nature of the human being (māhiyyat al-insān) and of the afterlife in dialogue or contrast with the Qurʾān (Koran). The theme of the course (and the first part of the Epistle) will also allow students to familiarise themselves with the different schools within Islamic rational theology (kalām).