I am a contributor to Closer to Truth, the long-running public television series and digital platform created and hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn that explores fundamental questions concerning the cosmos, consciousness, religion, and the nature of reality.
In 2022, I was invited to participate in Closer to Truth as part of its collaboration with the Global Philosophy of Religion Project, directed by Yujin Nagasawa. I subsequently filmed a series of conversations with Robert Lawrence Kuhn exploring philosophical questions arising from the Islamic tradition and reflecting the critical approach to philosophy of religion that characterizes much of my research. Our discussions address topics including the role of reason in Islam, the nature of God, human freedom and predestination, morality, religious diversity, the meaning and purpose of human life, and the philosophical problems raised by traditional Islamic conceptions of the afterlife.
View my complete Closer to Truth contributor profile
Conversations with Robert Lawrence Kuhn
God/Deities as Ultimate
I discuss the Islamic conception of God as the metaphysically ultimate foundation of reality, including Ibn Sīnā's (Avicenna's) influential argument from contingency for God's existence.
Person, Self, Soul, Spirit
I discuss Islamic conceptions of the self, address the tension between divine predestination and human freedom in Islam, and consider some of the philosophical difficulties that arise from denying genuine human free will.
Death, Life After Death, Reincarnation
I discuss Islamic eschatology and soteriology, explaining how various Muslim thinkers have understood and interpreted the doctrines of heaven and hell.
Eschatology: The World to Come
I offer a further discussion of Islamic eschatology and soteriology, which includes a few critical remarks about the traditional Islamic doctrine of hell.
Evil & Suffering, Morality & Ethics
I discuss the problem of evil in an Islamic context.
World, Value, Reality
I discuss the place of reason in Islam and also briefly address how Muslims have address how Muslims have understood the phenomenon of religious diversity.
Inner Life, Contemplative Practices
I discuss dimensions of Islamic religious practice and the inner life, including the relationship between Sufi approaches to spirituality and more mainstream forms of Islamic religious practice.
Science & Religion
I discuss philosophical approaches to interpreting the Qur'an in light of modern science and the broader question of how Muslims should understand apparent tensions between scriptural claims and scientific knowledge.
Fundamental Reality: Essence & Existence
I discuss metaphysics in Islam, touching on Ibn Sīnā's (Avicenna's) distinction between essence and existence, al-Ghazālī's understanding of causality, and the relationship between God and abstract objects.
Excerpts from my conversations have also appeared in Closer to Truth television episodes, including Global Philosophy: How Does Religion Engage Science? and Global Philosophy: What is the Person?