Nature, Man and God in Medieval Islam : : Volume One.

• VerfasserIn: Calverley, Edwin,
• TeilnehmendeR: Pollock, James.
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : BRILL,, 2022.; ©2002.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (769 pages)

A contemporary to Thomas Aquinas in Latin Catholic Italy, and with a parallel motivation to stabilize each his own civilization in its flux and storm, 'Abd Allah Baydawi of Ilkhan Persia wrote a compact and memorable Arabic Summation of Islamic Natural and Traditional Theology. With the same strokes of his pen he presented the Islamic version of the Science of Theological Statement, bafflingly called "Kalam" while familiarly embracing "Theology". Baydawi's Tawali'al-Anwar min Matal'al-Anzar (Rays of Dawnlight Outstreaming from Far Horizons of Logical Reasoning), with Mahmud Isfahani's commentary, is a formidably clear logical and mental vision of mankind's final completion as a spiritual structure in Islam. Reality - in nature's Possible mode, in an apodictic Divine mode, and in humanity's heroic Prophetic mode - comprises man's Worldview and is the Theme of the Baydawi/Isfahani discourse. The Edifice of Man and Humanity's evanescent Evidence within it are both hugely arresting and moving. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004121027).

Table of Contents

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Content -- Acknowledgments -- Translators' Introduction -- A note on the translation, its edition and revision -- A note on 'Abd Allah Baydawi [d. 1316?] -- A note on Mahmud Isfahani [1276-1348] -- THE TRANSLATION -- Foreword to the Commentary by Mahmud Isfahani -- Foreword to the Subject Text by 'Abd Allah Baydawi -- Isfahani's Commentary to Baydawi's Text begins -- AUTHORS' INTRODUCTION STUDIES IN LOGICAL REASONING -- Chapter 1: Principles of epistemology -- 1. The two phases of knowing: an alternation between a. and b. -- a. Concept formation regarding what is being perceived -- b. Judgmental assent or dissent to features of the concept being formed -- c. Each phase either by intuition or by rational acquisition of knowledge -- 2. Logical rea.ooning, the means of such acquisition -- Chapter 2: Explanatory statements -- 1. Conditions that govern a definition -- 2. Classes of definitions -- Razi's objections -- Baydawi's reply to Razi -- 3. Realities definable and definitive -- Chapter 3: Argumentation -- 1. Kinds of argumentation -- Analogical deduction -- Investigative induction -- Illustrative analogical deduction -- 2. Analogical deduction in the syllogism and its types -- The hypothetical exceptive syllogism -- The categorical connective syllogism and the four figures -- Figures 1, 2, 3, 4 -- Summary of figures and moods -- 3. The premised materials of argumentation -- Argumentation structured on rationality-proof, rhetoric, fallacy -- Argumentation structured on authoritative tradition -- Chapter 4: The distinguishing properties of sound logical reasoning -- 1. Sound logical reasoning yields knowledge -- Objections of the Buddhists -- Objections of the geometricians -- Corollaries to the yield of knowledge -- 2. Sound logical reasoning is sufficient for knowledge of God.

3. Sound logical reasoning is obligatory for knowledge of God -- BOOK ONE REALITIES POSSIBLE -- Section 1: Universals -- Chapter 1: Classification of things known -- 1. According to the Asha'irah and the Mu'tazilah -- 2. According to the Philosophers and the Mutakallimun -- Chapter 2: Existence and nonexistence -- 1. The conception of existence is intuitive -- 2. Existence is a commonality among all existents -- A proof from negation -- 3. Existence is an addition to the quiddities -- Ash'ari's variant argument -- Special case of the necessary existent -- The philosophers' variant argument -- A corollary -- 4. The nonexistent is not a certainty externally -- Argument of the Mu'tazilah on the non-existent -- 5. The attribute-state is to be excluded -- Chapter 3: Quiddity -- 1. On the quiddity itself -- 2. Classes of quiddity -- Corollary regarding the simple quiddity -- Corollary regarding the composite quiddity with distinguishable parts -- Corollary regarding the composite quiddity with interpenetrating parts -- 3. Individuation -- Whether individuation is existential -- The philosophers' corollary -- Chapter 4: Necessity and possibility, eternity and temporality -- 1. These subjects are intellectual entities having no external existence -- 2. The distinguishing properties of necessity -- 3. The distinguishing properties of possibility -- The possibility makes a possible reality have need for a cause -- Neither state of a possible reality has priority -- A possible reality's existence depends upon an effective cause -- A possible reality needs its effective cause as long as it exists -- 4. Eternity -- 5. Temporality -- Chapter 5: Singularity and plurality -- 1. On the real nature of singularity and plurality -- Singularity is not the opposite of plurality in essence -- 2. Classes of singularities -- 3. Classes of plurality.

Objections regarding the black/white contrast -- Some corollaries -- Chapter 6: Cause and effect -- 1. Classes of cause -- 2. Multiple causes and effects -- 3. The difference between the cause's effective part and its limiting condition -- 4. Whether one thing can be both receiver and agent of causation simultaneously -- Section 2: Accidents -- Chapter 1 : General topics -- 1. The various kinds of accidental qualities -- 2. The impossibility of accidents transiting between substrates -- 3. Whether an accident can subsist in another accident -- 4. Whether accidents have permanent continuance -- 5. The impossibility of one accident subsisting in two substrates at once -- Chapter 2: Quantity -- 1. Classes of quantity -- 2. Quantity in its essence and as an accident -- 3. On the nonexistential nature of quantities -- 4. Time duration -- The external existence of time duration: arguments against -- The external existence of time duration: arguments for -- Theories on the nature of time duration -- 5. Place and void -- Theories of place -- Chapter 3: Quality -- 1. Sensate qualities -- Classes of sensate qualities -- Touch sensations -- Temperature: heat -- Temperature: cold -- Humidity -- Weight -- Texture -- Vision sensations -- Color strength -- Nature of light -- Hearing sensations -- Taste sensations -- Smell sensations -- 2. Psychic qualities -- The living nature [or, life and its absence] -- Perception and knowledge -- Corollaries to the mental form -- The rational soul's four stages of intellectual development -- The power of autonomous action and the willing nature -- Pleasure and pain are self-evident concepts -- Health and illness and related emotions -- 3. Qualities specific to quantities -- 4. Qualities of predisposition -- Chapter 4: Accidents of relation -- 1. Whether they appear in external existence -- 2. The case of 'place-where'.

Gradual motion-change in quantity, quality, position and place-where -- General factors necessarily involved in gradual motion-change -- Types of force required to make gradual motion-change necessary -- Whether quiescence occurs when straight-line motion changes direction -- 3. The case of the adjunctive relationship -- On priority in the adjunctive relationship -- Section 3: Substances -- Chapter 1: Bodies -- 1. Definition of a 'body' -- 2. Leading doctrinal theories on the parts of a body -- The Mutakallimun argument that a body is a composite of indivisible atoms -- The philosophers' arguments against the composition of bodies from atoms -- The philosophers say a body is a continuity in itself and divisible without limit -- Corollaries to the philosophers' doctrine of a body -- 3. Classes of bodies -- Simple bodied celestial spheres -- Corollaries to the existence of the spheres: their ethereal nature -- Corollaries to the existence of the spheres: motion in circular rotation -- Simple bodied celestial orbs are fixed in the spheres -- Simple bodied elements: fire, air, earth, water -- Composite bodies are made from the elements -- 4. Bodies as temporal phenomena -- Theories of the philosophers on cosmogony -- Arguments for the temporal nature of bodies -- Bodies would have been quiescent if they had been present in past eternity -- Bodies are possible realities and are caused -- Bodies are inseparable from temporal phenomena -- Arguments against the temporal nature of bodies -- 5. Bodies as limited entities -- Chapter 2: Incorporeal substantial beings -- 1. Classes of incorporeal substantial beings -- 2. The intellects of the celestial system -- Intellects of the celestial system transcend thelimitations of matter -- 3. The souls of the celestial system -- 4. The incorporeal nature of human 'rational souls'.

Reason provides evidence of the rational soul's incorporeal nature -- The rational soul's knowledge about God is not divisible as matter -- Rational souls can perceive contraries simultaneously -- Rational souls conceived as material bodies could not think freely -- Rational souls can comprehend intelligibles without limit -- Rational souls conceived as material bodies could not perceive universals -- Tradition provides evidence of the rational soul's incorporeal nature -- 5. The temporal nature of rational souls -- 6. The rational soul's linkage to the body and governance within it -- Powers of external perception -- Sight -- Hearing -- Smell -- Taste -- Touch -- Powers of internal perception -- Coordination -- Imagination -- Estimation -- Memory -- Execution -- Powers of body motion-change that are voluntary and elective -- Powers of body motion-change that are naturally autonomic -- 7. The permanent survival of the rational soul aftert he body's death.