In the series of extracts I’m running from my still-being-written book on the history of moral thought, I have reached Chapter 8, which explores the struggle between the Rationalists and the Traditionalists in early Islam, and the significance of that struggle not just to Islam but to Christianity and to the development of modern secularism too. The expansion of the Islamic empire from India to Iberia created new political tensions and theological dilemmas. It also created new kinds of administrative […]

Categories: History of moral thought • Tags: al-farabi, al-ghazzali, al-kindi, al-ma'mun, al-mansur, aristotle, christianity, enlightenment, ethics, euthyphro dilemma, falsafah, god, history of moral thought, ibn rushd, ibn sina, judeo-christian tradition, kenan malik's books, mu'tazilite, muslim rationalism, neo-platonism, parmenides, plato, qur'an, religion, theology, via negativa