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What does it mean to be a Muslim philosopher, or to philosophize in Islam? In Open to Reason, Souleymane Bachir Diagne traces Muslims' intellectual and spiritual history of examining and questioning beliefs and arguments to show how Islamic philosophy has always engaged critically with texts and ideas both inside and outside its tradition. Through a rich reading of classical and modern Muslim philosophers, Diagne explains the long history of philosophy in the Islamic world and its relevance to crucial issues of our own time.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. And How to Not Philosophize?
2. How a Language Becomes Philosophical
3. What Does It Mean for a Philosophy to Be Islamic
4. Against Philosophy?
5. A Lesson in Ecological Philosophy
6. The Obligation to Philosophize
7. The Need for Philosophy
8. The Philosophy of Reform
9. The Philosophy of Movement
10. Pluralism
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Souleymane Bachir Diagne is a professor in the departments of French and philosophy at Columbia University. His books in English include African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude (2011) and The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa (2016).
Summary
Open to Reason traces Muslims’ long intellectual and spiritual history of questioning to show how Islamic philosophy has always engaged critically with texts and ideas both inside and outside its tradition. Through a rich reading of classical and modern Muslim philosophers, Souleymane Bachir Diagne explains their relevance to our own time.
Additional text
What makes the volume particularly valuable is a self-conscious theoretical reflection that is often missing in global philosophical accounts.
Report
This is a remarkable and interesting book. Open to Reason is tremendously valuable on two levels: first, as an account of the place of philosophy in Muslim history; and, second, as a philosophical proposal of some depth and substance that could orient Muslims and others in understanding Islam today. Charles Taylor, author of A Secular Age
