Meeting ID for EVERY meeting: 698 321 867

This class meets every Wednesday from 2:30-5 pm in Adorjan Hall 343.

Adorjan Hall's address is 3800 Lindell Blvd. St. Louis, MO, 63108.

UMSL Students: Please park in Laclede Garage with a valid parking pass.

Avicenna and Aquinas’s works are foundational for the subsequent history of both Eastern and Western philosophical and theological thought, not only for their historical influence but also for the depth and richness of their philosophical views. Additionally, the metaphysics of Aquinas and Avicenna is foundational for all the rest of their philosophical and theological work. Their thought, however, greatly influenced and was greatly influenced by the works of not only by their Greek predecessors but also by their predecessors in all three of the Abrahamic traditions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. While the influence Aquinas on much of our European intellectual heritage is recognized, the philosophical and theological thought of Aquinas’ Muslim predecessors is much less well known to contemporary philosophers than that of the thinkers in the other two religious traditions. Moreover, the Muslim philosophical and theological works are themselves rich and deep and worthy of study. Their thought is as philosophically significant as it is historically important. In this seminar, we will present and examine one of the most important medieval Muslim philosophers and his metaphysical thought, namely, Avicenna, and how his philosophical theology affected the metaphysical work of Aquinas’s. Our aim is to understand the thought of both thinkers in their own right and as they are related to each other.

Avicenna, The Metaphysics of The Healing, trans. and ed. Michael E. Marmura. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2005 (available in PDF form).

Avicenna, Selected Readings from Classical Arabic Philosophy (available in PDF form).

Thomas Aquinas. Summa theologiae (ST). Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. 1920.

• This text is available online at: <http://www.op.org/summa/>. Alternately, the Summa may be accessed at < http://www.newadvent.org/summa/>.

All the other readings for this course are on this webpage.

(a) Appointments to discuss possible paper topics: between February 17 and February 26.

(b) Paper topics approved: no later than February 28.

(c) First Draft - Due date: April 1 (3500 word maximum).

(d) Written comments on the first draft of another student’s paper. Due date: April 15.

(Written comments must be at least 1000 words in length.)

(e) Final draft of paper. Due date: Wednesday, May 6 (3500 word maximum).

* = The due dates for the paper and for the paper topic must be met, unless there is some reason for the tardiness which the professors have approved in advance. Papers late without prior excuse will be suitably penalized.