The foundation of knowledge

What is the basis of knowledge? What is our first knowledge? What is the science we have to begin with and proceed to all the sciences?

The question of origin (where does it come from?) and foundation (what is it built on?) is a classical question coming from Meno(Plato’s dialogue) which had great developments in classical Arabic philosophy with a religious issue: what comes first, science or revelation?, an historical issue: how to transfer science from a learned nation to an ignorant one?, an epistemological issue: how to discover what never appears in front of our eyes? a sociological issue: everyone pretends to be a scholar, but who is a real one?, and pedagogical issue: how can we help pupils to access to a knowledge they ignore?

This course offers exploring the question of foundation of knowledge through studying Arab philosophers from al-Kindī (died before 870) to al-Fārābī (died in 950). We are used to consider them Aristotelian philosophers and rationalists defenders of prophecy, which is almost wrong. Arithmetician Pythagorean philosophers faced empiricist as logician Aristotelian thinkers. As some of them defended that prophecy is the origin of science, others that it’s an image of science, while others said that’s all fake. Philosophical activity reflected the huge diversity of the Abbasid empire.

What to expect?

-Methodology of philosophy (what is a philosophy? what is a concept? What is a problem?)

-Methodology of philosophical texts analysis

-An insight in Classical Arabic Philosophy