Past Event

Ethical Rationalism in Islamic Thought: A New Perspective

This lecture will investigate the concept of ‘intellect’, its complex theoretical contexts, and how it developed and was applied in ethical epistemology in premodern Islamic thought, especially from the 9th-13th centuries. It argues that different definitions of ‘intellect’ underpinned competing strands of ethical rationalism, and questions the characterisation of certain ethical epistemologies and theories of value as either rationalist or non-rationalist.

About the Lecturer

Ayman Shihadeh (DPhil Oxford) is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Intellectual History, and the Head of the School of History, Religions and Philosophies at SOAS University of London. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of SOAS, and the Philosophy and Theology Editor at the Encyclopaedia of Islam, published by Brill. He recently served as a panel member on the Research Excellence Framework, the official system for assessing research quality in the UK. Professor Shihadeh specialises in the history of philosophy and religious thought in the premodern Islamic world and has published two monographs, several edited books and many articles on the subject. His wide range of research interests include ethical theory in Islamic theology, philosophy and jurisprudence.