Submitted by Mrs Jane Wallace on Tue, 27/05/2025 - 16:43
Amal Awad, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Divinity (pictured above with keynote speaker His Royal Highness Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad), convened a high-level international conference entitled The Philosophy of Mind in Medieval Islamic Thought, which took place from 16 to 18 May 2025 at the Old Library, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge.
This three-day conference brought together distinguished scholars from across the globe to explore how medieval Islamic philosophers and theologians engaged with fundamental questions in the philosophy of mind. Drawing on a wide range of Arabic texts, the event examined classical Islamic conceptions of soul, selfhood, intentionality, and perception, offering a rigorous and historically grounded account of how the mind was understood within Islamic intellectual traditions.
The programme was structured around three major thematic panels:
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Metaphysical, focusing on the ontological status of the soul and the nature of selfhood;
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Epistemological, addressing perception, intellection, and mechanisms of cognition;
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Intellectual-historical, exploring how theories of mind and soul developed across different periods and genres of Islamic thought—particularly within falsafa and kalām
A central highlight of the event was the keynote lecture delivered by His Royal Highness Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, titled A Thinking Person's Guide to the Heart.
The conference also featured papers by leading scholars in Islamic philosophy and theology, including Peter Adamson, Frank Griffel, Ayman Shihadeh, Jari Kaukua, and John Marenbon among others. It provided a platform not only for historical inquiry but also for reimagining contemporary debates on consciousness and the mind through the lens of the classical Islamic tradition.
The full programme, list of speakers, and further details can be found on the website:
https://www.philosophy-of-mind-in-medieval-islamic-thought.com/