عنوان

Existentialist humanism, intersubjectivity, and transcendence in the unified civic humanism of Ibn Miskawayh

Number

TLpq1674518535

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Existentialist humanism, intersubjectivity, and transcendence in the unified civic humanism of Ibn Miskawayh

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

John Peter Radez

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

J. Walbridge

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Indiana University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2015

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

211

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Indiana University

Text preceding or following the note

2015

Text of Note

The dissertation investigates how the three primary works on metaphysics, history, and moral philosophy of Miskawayh, an 11th century Islamic ethicist, can be read in toto as one existential work that exhibits three Sartrean existential properties, namely, the materialization of self, the encountering of self, and the defining of self. My inquiry focuses on how Miskawayh's three works intersect with one another in one existential work with two dominant Islamic humanist themes--intersubjectivity (that is, learning about the other to discover the truth about one's self) and transcendence (that is, one's relationship with divinity). I begin by giving an account of Miskawayh's life in 11 th century Baghdad. I then examine how his job as a royal court librarian inspired him as a historian and philosopher. Next, I discuss Miskawayh's contributions to 11th century Islamic humanism and how these contributions led Miskawayh to create a kind of civic humanism that shaped his moral philosophy. Finally, I conclude by arguing that Miskawayh was an Islamic existentialist humanist who anticipated Kierkegaard and Sartre. Traditional Miskawayh scholarship has focused primarily on Miskawayh as an Aristotelian philosopher in the Iranian tradition of political thought and courtly culture. My research goes beyond this notion and shows instead that Miskawayh's philosophy in particular--and Islamic philosophy in general--is not merely derivative of Greek philosophy. Rather, Islamic philosophy possesses and integrates something quite unique and foreign to Greek philosophy, namely, elements of existentialism, theology, metaphysics, mysticism, and humanism.

Islamic philosophers

Islamic philosophy

Medieval philosophers

Medieval philosophy

Philosophy, religion and theology

Social sciences

J. Walbridge

John Peter Radez

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y