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The Decline of Thought in the Arab World According to Muhammad ‘Abed al-Jabiri

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Meryem Sebti*
Affiliation:
CNRS, Paris

Abstract

This paper discusses in critical terms muhammad ‘abd al-Jabiri’s influential philosophical work. It engages, in particular, in the analysis of the assumptions underlying the radical contrast that al-Jabiri sets up between avicenna’s philosophy – which is supposed to represent irrationality and Gnosticism – and that of averroes who, according to him, breaks decisively with that current of thought and thus makes exercising philosophical thought once again possible. after a close discussion of the positions of classical philosophers (falasifa), the author concludes that it is the very validity of the notion of “arab reason” that has to be questioned in al-Jabiri’s analysis.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2010

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