Reason Science&Faith in Islam

Catalog description

This course has three major parts. In the first part, we shall look at primary sources of Islam tradition, that of Qur'an and hadith, which will give us a starting point as we turn to the ways in which miracles have been discussed in the tradition. In the second part, we shall look at two classical Muslim thinkers, Ghazali and Ibn Rushd, who differed on miracles as well as on the relation between reason and faith. Analyzing their disagreement will offer us critical insights about common sense, science, rationality and dynamics of Quranic interpretation. In the third part, we shall look at contemporary interpretation of miracles as well as the relation between faith and reason by looking at a crucial Muslim thinker, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, as well as some of the other approaches to science in modern era. In this part we shall also engage with the epistemological and scientific implications of Islamic understandings of miracles with the help of two Western thinkers, David Hume and Charles S. Peirce. In the final portion of the course, students will present their research on the issue of the relation between reason, science and faith in Muslim context. Please note: This course can be used to satisfy the GEP Religious Difference requirement or the GEP Faith and Reason requirement, but not both.