Accessibility statement

Philosophy of Islam - PHI00111H

« Back to module search

  • Department: Philosophy
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. David Worsley
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2019-20

Module summary

This module uses the concepts, views, and arguments in analytic philosophy to clarify philosophical problems raised by Islamic theology, to offer solutions to those problems, and to evaluate those solutions using a cost/benefit analysis.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching cycle
A Spring Term 2019-20

Module aims

Subject Content

  • To explore some key philosophical issues in Islamic theology;
  • To provide a research-led approach to understanding and participating in contemporary debates in the Philosophy of Islam.

Academic and Graduate Skills

To develop students' abilities to apply philosophical concepts, views, and arguments, in order to advance the understanding of intellectual problems.

Module learning outcomes

Subject Content

By the end of this module you should be able to explain

  • key theological claims of the major schools of Islam,
  • the philosophical problems they give rise to,
  • how these problems can be solved using the concepts, views, and arguments of analytic philosophy.

You should then be able to evaluate these solutions using a cost/benefit analysis with reference to Scripture (the Quran), tradition (the differing schools of Islam), and reason (philosophical, scientific, and other secular sources of knowledge). Finally, you should be able to argue for your preferred solution, or that there is no satisfactory solution.

Academic and graduate skills

By the end of this module you should be able to explain the concepts, views, and arguments of theological and philosophical material, critically engage with these concepts, views, and arguments, and defend your own view on these matters.

Module content

This module examines key claims in Islamic theology that raise philosophical problems. These include:

  • Islamic accounts of religious faith and its relation to reason, especially as reason relates to the Quran and to tradition,
  • Islamic accounts of the human person, especially the immortality of the soul,
  • Islamic accounts of the world, especially its eternity,
  • Islamic accounts of Allah, especially his omnipotence, omniscience, perfect goodness, and oneness, and
  • Islamic accounts of a religious life, both in this world in the next.

In this module, students will use the concepts, views, and arguments of analytic philosophy

  • to clarify these theological claims and the philosophical problems they raise,
  • to give solutions to these problems,
  • to evaluate these solutions using a a cost/benefit analysis with reference to Scripture (the Quran), tradition (the differing schools of Islam), and reason (philosophical, scientific, and other secular sources of knowledge), and
  • to argue for their preferred solution, or that there is no satisfactory solution.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

The Formative essay will be submitted on Friday of Week 7.

The Formative essay plan will be submitted on Monday of Week 10.

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay		 N/A 100

Module feedback

Students will receive feedback on the 1500-word essay two weeks after they submit it.

Students will receive feedback on the essay plan during office hours in Week 10 (at least six office hours will be offered).

Students will receive feedback on the 4000-word summative assessment and re-assessment four weeks after they submit it.

Indicative reading

Oliver Leaman, Controversies in Contemporary Islam (Routledge, 2013)

Oliver Leaman, Islamic Philosophy: An Introduction (Polity, 2009)

Anthony Robert Booth, Analytic Islamic Philosophy (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017)


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): changes to courses

The 2020/21 academic year will start in September. We aim to deliver as much face-to-face teaching as we can, supported by high quality online alternatives where we must.

Find details of the measures we're planning to protect our community.

Course changes for new students