The Philosophy of Religion pathway reflects the distinctiveness of the field which has developed at Cambridge over the past 100 years. The subject area has come to be defined by an attention to metaphysical frameworks, questions of ontology and epistemology, poetic form and an interdisciplinary approach, as well as a concern to address current philosophical developments from a philosophico-theological perspective, and a commitment to bringing pre-modern sources to bear upon contemporary philosophical questions. The pathway is designed for students interested in metaphysics – the nature of (ultimate) reality and God within reality. It explores theoretical, historically contextualised and poetic-liturgical approaches to these questions, with close attention to primary sources and textual forms.

The pathway welcomes students whose previous study was in theology and philosophy as well as cognate fields, such as classics and comparative literature. It attracts students from all over the world, with the training provided forming an ideal foundation from which to proceed to doctoral research, whether in the UK or internationally. Throughout the year, students will be supervised by a dedicated supervisor who will guide their research towards the completion of an original topic chosen and developed by them in consultation with their supervisor. In addition, students will benefit from the Faculty’s and Cambridge’s vibrant research environment, participating in the D Society seminars, as well as the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism, and other research seminars, guest talks, workshops and other events throughout the year. Students in this pathway are expected to attend the D Society seminars.

Arabic Philosophy Pathway

Pathway Advisor: Dr Yasser Qureshy (yza20@cam.ac.uk)

The Arabic Philosophy Pathway is a new initiative under the Philosophy of Religion. It draws on the extraordinary breadth of expertise the Faculty of Divinity currently has in Arabic and Islamic philosophy. No Arabic is required, though there is provision for preliminary language training, and the exercise and modules provide parallel language texts where available. The pathway welcomes those eligible for the Philosophy of Religion Pathway, as well as those trained in Arabic in an Oriental Studies faculty.

Students in this pathway are expected to attend Professor John Marenbon’s (jm258@cam.ac.uk) Medieval Philosophy Reading Group each week, and Dr Amal Awad’s (aaa84@cam.ac.uk) Arabic Philosophy Reading Group each week in Michaelmas Term.

Module for Michaelmas Term, Module 2 (Philosophy of Religion Pathway). Islamic Philosophical Theology: The Ashʿarī School through the lens of systematicity and development of theological method Module Coordinator: Dr Yasser Qureshy (yza20@cam.ac.uk)

Module for Lent Term, Module 4 (Philosophy of Religion Pathway). Science of Creation- Premodern Theories Module Coordinator: Dr Suf Amichay (sta34@cam.ac.uk)

Module 1. Michaelmas Term Nature and Divine Ideas

Module Coordinator: Douglas Hedley, rdh26@cam.ac.uk

The concept of ‘nature’ is polyvalent and perplexing. This module surveys the main intellectual traditions from the “classical” period of Western philosophy (approx. 550 BCE) up to, and including, current trends in contemporary philosophy. The texts we will read from these traditions deal with fundamental questions about Nature and its relation with Ethics, Aesthetics, Political Theory, Human Nature, and Metaphysics. The range of answers they present to these questions laid a foundation to our contemporary attitudes and patterns of behaviour toward nature.

There will be four classes this term, each lasting for two hours. No prior knowledge

of classical languages or history is required for this module.

Objectives. The aims of the module are to:

• • Initiate the student to reflect upon the concept of nature in a philosophical manner. This reflection should enable the student to develop the necessary competences (abilities and attitudes) susceptible to enhance the quality of a dialogue on the various current debates concerning nature.
  • Become acquainted with the history of philosophy, by studying a specific metaphysical theme.
  • Develop a critical thinking about philosophical issues in general, and about the idea of nature in particular.

Structure of the Module

• • Seminar 1. Nature as φύσις (phusis)
  • Seminar 2. Nature as natura
  • Seminar 3. Mind and World
  • Seminar 4. Divine Ideas and the Problem of God’s Aseity

Assessment. This module is assessed through a 5,000-word essay. Students may select an essay subject from the list below, or may write on a suitable topic agreed in consultation with the module coordinator. Essay titles must be approved by the degree committee. Some indicative questions are:

• • Nature and Religion. Is God beyond nature?
  • Nature and Aesthetics. What is the role of imagination in our perception of nature?

• • Nature and Panpsychism. Is Mentality fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world?
  • Nature and Convention. Is taste subjective, or conventional, or both?
  • Nature, Free-Will and Determinism. If one accepts that the universe is governed by natural 
laws, does this entail determinism?

Module 2. Michaelmas Term. Islamic Philosophical Theology: The Ashʿarī School through the lens of systematicity and development of theological method

Module Coordinator: Dr Yasser Qureshy

This seminar series is conceived to explore two interrelated aims.

Firstly, to bring to light the systematic character of the classical Ashʿarī school. ‘Systematic’ is here meant to convey the idea that the theologians under consideration built an architectonic of knowledge with comprehensive and integrated categories of understanding the world, taking in the ontology of the cosmos, its metaphysics, its logical thought structure, its semantic categories and additionally for the purposes of this seminar series, the science of optics. Importantly, such an understanding saw these disciplines not as mutually exclusive or siloed categories but as continuous fields of inquiry that contributed towards building a complete and holistic worldview. In constructing such a worldview, Ashʿarī thinkers did not see speculation about the world as something removed from understanding God’s word as revealed in the Qur’an. Here, the importance of the science referred to as uṣūl al-fiqh as a method to interpret and understand Scripture, as well as the way this science complements broader theological method, will be explored. Understood in this way, the systematic nature of Islamic philosophical theology can be appraised from at least three perspectives:

How the internal topics of Islamic philosophical theology fit together. For instance, how discussions on metaphysics, ontology, types and sources of knowledge, God’s attributes, and prophetology are inter-related and cross- dependent.

How Islamic philosophical theology as a science fits together with other sciences such as uṣūl al-fiqh, Ḥadīth, and Qur’anic exegesis to form an integrated set of disciplines. For instance, uṣūl al-fiqh is taken as the science that determines how scripture is to be understood through a particular theory of language, a particular theory of abrogation, and a particular theory of resolving seemingly conflicting evidence. It is through the hermeneutical principles of uṣūl al-fiqh that Muslim scholars have come to understand scripture the way they do, and some of the things that have come to be understood through this method have theological implications.

The manner in which the various Islamic sciences stand in a relation of subordination to a foundational science which bestows the other sciences with their first principles. Within such an epistemological hierarchy, some sciences are more primary, which means they are epistemologically more foundational, and other sciences rest on these prior sciences. Such an idea is Aristotelian in stock, modified by Ibn Sīnā (d. 427/1037), and then brought into the Islamic theological tradition in its earliest form by Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111). In this epistemological hierarchy, Islamic philosophical theology serves as the epistemological guarantor for all other sciences.

The second aim of the seminar series has a methodological focus, wherein we will explore the logico-epistemological development of the classical Ashʿarī school, and how it came to reject its earlier logical methods, thus paving the way for its subsequent move towards a more robust epistemological base in the form of Avicennan logic. The interplay between the two aims will be anchored in a case study of one of the most significant theological disputes in classical Islamic theology: the beatific vision (ru’yat Allah).

Entering the fray of Islamic philosophical theology in the 11th century is important for at least the following five reasons: (i) it represents the culmination of the steadily growing influence of Avicennan philosophy on the thought of Muslim theologians;

2. we find in this period a group of theologians representative of the mature phase of Ash‘arism, specifically through the works of Abū al-Ma‘ālī al-Juwaynī and his group of students: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Anṣārī, and Ilkiyā al- Ḩarrāsī; (iii) this period provides the turning point when we can now more meaningfully describe Ash‘arī theologians as philosophical theologians based on their adoption of Avicennan modes of reasoning which saw them move away from dialectical argumentation towards demonstration (burhān); (iv) the influence this period exercised on subsequent thinkers, resulting in the post-classical tradition of theology that becomes significantly more philosophical in nature and scope; (v) it further allows us to understand and modify Ibn Khaldūn’s division of the Ash‘arī school into classical and post-classical as a distinction of method and intricate philosophical argument rather than a temporal distinction.

Teaching will be by four two-hour seminars augmented by two one-hour supervisions.

Module aims. This module provides a systematic and methodological framework through which to explore questions in classical Islamic philosophical theology, specifically in relation to the Ashʿarī school. MPhil students taking this module will

be able to identity and assess the undergirding of a major theological question. By so doing, the module intends to show the Islamic philosophical corpus as a source that has creatively and critically addressed perennial questions of philosophy in general, and perhaps offer argumentative pathways and tools with which to engage newly emergent questions of concern to contemporary philosophers.

The module proposes an approach wherein one is able to ‘do’ philosophical theology. Instead of limiting the scope of the study of Islamic philosophical theology in its classical and post-classical stages to a study of historical tradition, the module expands the scope to an active, critical, and systematic revisiting of this philosophical canon and offers a further step in the increasingly growing attempts to develop a global perspective on Islamic philosophical inquiry. It is hoped the module will also go towards challenging the narrative that Islamic philosophy was mostly barren (or worse, parasitic on actual philosophy), and that Islamic intellectuality fell into decadence and decline from the 12th century onwards. The module may also be offered to postgraduate students from the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies interested in the tradition of Islamic philosophical theology, as well as those in the Classics Faculty interested in the engagement—and at the hands of Ibn Sīnā, the reworking—of Aristotelian thought in the Arabo-Islamic tradition.

Module outline:

• • Seminar One: The interplay between philosophical theology and scriptural hermeneutics
  • Seminar Two: Physical theory: atomism
  • Seminar Three: Development of theological method
  • Seminar Four: Systematicity and development of method through a case study on the beatific vision.
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The module assessment is by a 5000-word essay. Students may select a title from the list below, in consultation with the module convenor. Alternatively, students may formulate their own title on a suitable topic, in discussion with the module convenor, within the area of the module. Titles are subject to the approval of the Degree Committee, Faculty of Divinity. In either case, the choice of essay subject will be dependent on the availability of appropriate supervision. Sample essay questions include:

• • With systematic considerations in mind, what regulatory function does atomism serve in the classical Ashʿarī school?