Islamic Humanism

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, Mar 27, 2003 - History - 288 pages
This book is an attempt to explain how, in the face of increasing religious authoritarianism in medieval Islamic civilization, some Muslim thinkers continued to pursue essentially humanistic, rational, and scientific discourses in the quest for knowledge, meaning, and values. Drawing on a wide range of Islamic writings, from love poetry to history to philosophical theology, Goodman shows that medieval Islam was open to individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism, even liberalism.
 

Contents

Introduction
3
1 The Sacred and the Secular
30
2 Humanism and Islamic Ethics
82
3 Being and Knowing
122
4 The Rise of Universal Historiography
161
Notes
213
Bibliography
251
Index
261
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About the author (2003)

Lenn E. Goodman is Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Among his many publications are In Defense of Truth (2001), Jewish and Islamic Philosophy: Crosspollinations in the Classic Age (1999), Judaism, Human Rights, and Human Values (OUP, 1998), and God of Abraham (OUP, 1996).

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