Sajjad Rizvi
“Philosophy as a Way of Life in Islamic Philosophy”
January, 14 | 14h00 (UTC)
9h00 New York | 11h00 Brasília | 14h00 Lisbon | 15h00 Berlin | Other locations
Abstract
Philosophy as a way of life finds parallels in some of the traditions in Islam. In this talk, I examine the applicability of PWL as a lens for understanding aspects of philosophical and philosophy-adjacent traditions in the Islamic East from the 11th century onwards by considering three issues. The first is the creative difference between philosophy and wisdom and the very notion of the sage especially through the Platonic tradition of godlikeness (about which Hadot himself said less). The second is the community of the sage and what we might be able to say about the communal practice of philosophy in the Islamic East. The third is the notion of spiritual exercises and how we might analyse a scheme of such practices within Islamic contexts. In all of these, I would like to investigate how thinkers and practitioners in the Islamic East present modifications and extensions of Hadot’s conception. Finally, I consider some objections to PWL as a way of making sense of philosophical traditions in Islam.
Bio
Sajjad Rizvi is Professor of Islamic Intellectual History and Director of Global and Area Studies at the University of Exeter. A specialist on the philosophical traditions of the Islamic East and trained as an intellectual historian at Oxford and Cambridge, he is the author of Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics: Modulation of Being (Routledge, 2008). He is currently working on a short manifesto on global and Islamic philosophy.
Registration required via email to mapping.pwl@gmail.com