HoP 123 - Philosopher of the Arabs - al-...

Is Pierre Bayle’s pioneering reference work, the Historical and Critical Dictionary, a monument to skepticism or to fideism? 

The “Quietists” Jeanne Guyon and François Fénelon argue that self-love can be overcome by cultivating a “pure love” for God. Their reward: to be accused of heresy. 

How the “neo-classical” tragedies of Racine explore the battle between passion and reason. 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Arab philosopher al-Kindi. Born in the early ninth century, al-Kindi was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy and supervised the translation of many works by Aristotle and others into Arabic. The author of more than 2 ... Show More

We're reading a 9th century Arabic philosopher (from what's now Iraq), in fact the "father of Arab philosophy," Yaqub ibn Ishaq Al-Kindi, writing about how we can immunize ourselves to the sorrows of life through some means akin to Stoicism, which Al-Kindi as scholar of the Greek ... Show More

Caner Dagli is currently a professor in the Religion and Philosophy department at Roanoke College in Salem, VA. Dagli earned a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. from George Washington University and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. His dissertation is titled "From Mysticism ... Show More

Atif Khalil is on the faculty of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge. Khalil's primary area of research lies in Sufism, with secondary interests in Islamic philosophy and theology, comparative mysticism, interfaith relations, Jewish-Muslim relations, medieval philos ... Show More

In this podcast Eckhart talks about the soul of the world which in Latin translates to Anima Mundi. He says when we awaken to the transcendent dimension within ourselves, we are then able to discover the soul of the world as our own soul. Eckhart says that's the essence of all sp ... Show More

Jaakko Hameen-Anttila (b. 1963) is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Helsinki University (Finland). He has published on Classical Arabic literature and cultural history. His latest book is "The Last Pagans of Iraq. A Study on the Religious, Philosophical, and Literary As ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Soul. In his poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ WB Yeats wrote:An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unlessSoul clap its hands and sing, and louder singFor every tatter in its mortal dress. For Plato it was the immortal seat ... Show More

Michael Sells, Ph.D. (University of Chicago), is a John Henry Barrows Professor of Islamic History and Literature in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Michael Sells studies and teaches in the areas of qur'anic studies; Sufism; Arabic and Islamic love poetry; mysti ... Show More

Salman Bashier graduated from The University of Utah in August 2000. Since then he has been working as a visiting lecturer at Haifa University in the departments of Philosophy and Arabic Language and Literature. He is the author of "Ibn al-Arabi's Barzakh: The Concept of the Limi ... Show More

In this lecture, w explore the journey of the soul from its creation to the afterlife, its meanings in the Qur’an, its connections and what happens before, during and after death.