1.2.4 Taftazānī, Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid

Saʿd al-Din Taftazani (d. 1390), a Persian polymath who impacted the fields of Islamic theology, law, and rhetoric, among others, argued that, by his time, theology (kalām) had become virtually indistinguishable from philosophy (falsafa).

Guiding Questions:

  • What does the history of Islamic theology, as presented by Taftazani, tell you about Islamic thought?
  • Why do you think the content section of the commentary begins with a position on the theory of knowledge?
  • Is the correspondence theory of knowledge accepted by the community of philosophers and scientists today?

We will revisit these questions in more detail in Module 3. These questions are just to get us thinking about issues that are relevant to the philosophy of science and central to classical Islamic theology.

 
Thumbnail: “xSyrie2.” Photo credit: Marc Veraart, 2010. CC BY-ND 2.0
Note: If you have trouble viewing the PDF below, you can find the text here.