A1 Journal article (refereed)
Akbarian Scepticism in Islam : Qūnawī's Sceptical Arguments from Relativity and Disagreement (2022)

Daşdemir, Y. (2022). Akbarian Scepticism in Islam : Qūnawī's Sceptical Arguments from Relativity and Disagreement. Theoria: a Swedish Journal of Philosophy, 88(1), 202-225. https://doi.org/10.1111/theo.12298

JYU authors or editors

Dasdemir, Yusuf

Publication details

All authors or editors: Daşdemir, Yusuf

Journal or series: Theoria: a Swedish Journal of Philosophy

ISSN: 0040-5825

eISSN: 1755-2567

Publication year: 2022

Publication date: 02/02/2021

Volume: 88

Issue number: 1

Pages range: 202-225

Publisher: Wiley; Stifielsen Theoria

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/theo.12298

Publication open access: Other way freely accessible online

Publication channel open access:

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/75003

Abstract

This study deals with the sceptical arguments by one of the most important figures in the philosophical Sufi tradition (the Akbarian school) and the foremost disciple of Ibn ʿArabī, Ṣadr al‐Dīn al‐Qūnawī. Though not a sceptic in the strict sense, Qūnawī employs sceptical arguments from relativity of rational knowledge and disagreement among philosophers to prove inefficacy of reason and rational procedures of knowledge in terms of achieving certain knowledge of metaphysical matters, namely of God and the ultimate principles of things. The paper questions Qūnawī's implicit assumption that, if there is disagreement on a proposition p, then p is relative and thus cannot provide certain knowledge. It aims to philosophically analyse and assess his scepticism as well as to shed light on the largely unknown terrain of scepticism in the mediaeval Islamic world.

Keywords: Arabic philosophy; Sufism; mysticism; theory of knowledge; information; rationality; skepticism; relativism; relativity