Level 4: Philosophy 4: The One and the Many, the Metaphysics of Knowledge, and the Necessary Being

As a registered charity, we charge course fees to cover our running costs. However, we aim to make our education accessible to as many people as possible and are therefore able to offer a 65% fee waiver. To make use of this fee waiver, please use the code AMI65 when purchasing your courses.

Students in need of further financial assistance should contact the education team at education@almahdi.edu to enquire about the possibility of further fee waivers.

 

This is the fourth and final course in a series of courses devoted to advanced Sadrian philosophy. Students will continue and finish their close reading of Bidāyat al-ḥikma by Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāʾī. The course focuses on three main themes: (1) the One and the Many (2) the metaphysics of knowledge and (3) the Necessary Existent.  The first part is dedicated to the logical and metaphysical properties of the one and the many, identity and different categories of predication. In the second part students will explore the definition and types of knowledge as well as the relationship between the Knower and what is known. The final part will aim to consolidate all the sections covered in the book so far and apply them to the concept of the Necessary Being.

 

Lesson Breakdown

Lesson 1      8. The One and the Many (fī inqisām al-mawjūd ilā al-wāḥid wa al-kathīr)

8.1 On the meaning of one and many (fī maʿnā al-wāḥid wa al-kathīr)

Lesson 2      8.2 The types of one (fī aqsām al-wāḥid)

Lesson 3      8.3 Identity and predication (al-hūhuwiyya wa hū al-ḥaml)

                    8.4 Kinds of common predication (taqsīmāt li-l-ḥaml al-shāʾiʿ)

Lesson 4      8.5 Otherness and opposition (fī al-ghayriyya wa al-taqābul)

                    8.6 Correlation (fī taqābul al-taḍāyuf)

8.7 Contrariety (fī taqābul al-taḍād)

Lesson 5      8.8 The opposition of possession and privation (fī taqābul al-ʿadam wa al-malika)

                    8.9 Contradiction (fī al-taqābul wa al-tanāquḍ)

Lesson 6      8.10 The opposition of the one and the many (fī taqābul al-wāḥid wa al-kathīr)

Lesson 7      11. The Metaphysics of Knowledge (fī al-ʿilm wa al-ʿālim wa al-maʿlūm)

11.1 Definition of knowledge and its primary divisions (fī taʿrīf al-ʿilm wa inqisāmihi al-ūlā)

Lesson 8      11.1 Definition of knowledge and its primary divisions (fī taʿrīf al-ʿilm wa inqisāmihi al-ūlā) (continued)

Lesson 9      11.2 The division of acquired knowledge into universal and particular (yanqasim al-ʿilm al-ḥuṣūlī ilā kullī wa juzʾī)

Lesson 10    11.2 The division of acquired knowledge into universal and particular (yanqasim al-ʿilm al-ḥuṣūlī ilā kullī wa juzʾī) (continued)

Lesson 11    11.3 Another division of knowledge into universal and particular (yanqasim al-ʿilm inqisāman ākhar ilā kullī wa juzʾī)

11.4 Types of intellection (fī anwāʿ al-taʿqqul)

Lesson 12    11.4 Types of intellection (fī anwāʿ al-taʿqqul)

11.5 Stages of the intellect (fī marātib al-ʿaql)

Lesson 13    11.6 The emanating source of the intelligible forms (fī mufīḍ hādhihi al-ṣuwwar al-ʿilmiyya)

11.7 The division of acquired knowledge into conception and assertion (yanqasim al-ʿilm al-ḥuṣūlī ilā taṣawwur wa taṣdīq)

Lesson 14    11.7 The division of acquired knowledge into conception and assertion (yanqasim al-ʿilm al-ḥuṣūlī ilā taṣawwur wa taṣdīq) (continued)

Lesson 15    11.8 The division of acquired knowledge into self-evident and speculative (yanqasim al-ʿilm al-ḥuṣūlī ilā badīhī wa naẓarī)

Lesson 16    11.9 The division of acquired knowledge into real and derivative (yanqasim al-ʿilm al-ḥuṣūlī ilā ḥaqīqī wa iʿtibārī)

                    11.10 Miscellaneous issues (fī aḥkām mutafarriqa)

Lesson 17    11.11 Every immaterial being is intelligent (fī kull mujarrad fa-huwwa al-ʿāqil)

11.12 Presential knowledge is not limited to self-knowledge (fī al-ʿilm al-ḥuḍūrī wa annahu lā yakhtaṣṣ bi-ʿilm al-shayʾ bi-nafsihi)

Lesson 18    12. What Concerns the Necessary Being, Its Essence, Attributes, and Acts (fī mā yataʿallaq bi-l-wājib taʿālā)

                    12.1 The proofs of Its essence (fī ithbāt dhātihi taʿālā)

                    12.2 The proof of Its unity (fī ithbāt waḥdāniyyatihi taʿālā)

Lesson 19    12.3 The Necessary Being is the emanating source of every being and every existential perfection (fī anna al-wājib taʿālā huwwa al-mabdaʾ al-mufīḍ li-kull wujūd wa kamāl wujūdī)

12.4 The attributes of the Necessary Being and the meaning of their attribution (fī ṣifāt wājib al-wujūd taʿālā wa maʿnā ittiṣafihi bihā)

Lesson 20    12.4 The attributes of the Necessary Being and the meaning of their attribution (fī ṣifāt wājib al-wujūd taʿālā wa maʿnā ittiṣafihi bihā) (continued)

                    12.5 God’s knowledge (fī ʿilmihi taʿālā)

Lesson 21    12.6 God’s power (fī qudratihi taʿālā)

Lesson 22    12.7 The attribute of life (fī ḥayātihi taʿālā)

12.8 The attributes of will and speech (fī irādatihi taʿālā wa kalāmihi)

12.9 The divine act and its divisions (fī fiʿlihi taʿālā wa inqisāmātihi)

Lesson 23    12.10 The immaterial intellects and the possible manner of the occurrence of multiplicity in them (fī al-ʿaql al-mufāraq wa kayfiyyat ḥuṣūl al-kathrat fīhi)

12.11 The longitudinal intellects and the first thing that proceeds from them (fī al-ʿuqūl al-ṭūliyya wa awwal mā yaṣdur minhā)

Lesson 24    12.13 The world of likeness (fī al-mithāl)

                   12.14 The material world (fī al-ʿālam al-māddī)

 

Hours of Study

36 hours

 

Assessment Method

Written exam (50%)

Essay (50%)

 

Course Instructors

Dr Wahid Amin (Lecturer)

Dr Wahid Amin completed a BSc in Physics from Imperial College London and a PGCE from the Institute of Education, University College London. He then began his studies at the Al-Mahdi Institute and simultaneously completed a BA in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham, graduating from both in 2008. He went on to read for an MSt in the Study of Religions at the University of Oxford. His DPhil, also from Oxford, studied the metaphysics of necessary existence in the thought of the Persian polymath Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274). He joined AMI in 2015 as a Lecturer in Islamic Philosophy where he teaches courses on Islamic philosophy, theology, logic, and mysticism. He is also the Head of Publications at AMI Press and an Associate Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham. As an intellectual historian of Islam, his primary research interests revolve around post-classical Islamic philosophy and theology. He also maintains an interest in contemporary Islamic philosophy, the intersection between Islamic philosophy and political theory, and modern Shīʿī legal theory.