Islam and Natural Philosophy

Basil Altaie
Paperback
9781915025555

Principles of Daqiq al-Kalam

Kalam is one of the basic pillars of Islamic thought. Begun during the early decades of the 2nd Century after Hijra (9th Century A.D.), this trend aimed to resolve some questions in the Islamic creed by adopting a rational interpretation of religious teachings. Soon the teachers of Kalam (the Mutakallimun) found it necessary to get involved in discussing questions related to topics on natural philosophy, such as space, time, matter, and their constituents and properties. They tried to construct a system of thought and worldview that comply with the teachings of the Quran. In this book, the author presents this part of their thought, which concerns their views of the natural world formulated in a modern context of expressions. Such a formulation is necessary to understand the true meaning and aims of kalam philosophy.

Contents:
1. Introduction
2. The Kalam and the Mutakallimun
3. Atomism
4. Temporality
5. The Principle of Re-Creation
6. Contingency and Indeterminism
7. The Integrity of Space and Time
8. The Re-Creation Proposal
9. Motion
10. Natural Causality
11. Astronomy and Cosmology
12. The Anthropic Principle and the Multiverse
13. Evolution
14. Research Horizons