A 1.1 million dollar project linking Medieval Islamic philosophy to contemporary questions about the epistemology of religion in the analytic tradition. Generously funded by the John Templeton Foundation and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and hosted in the Philosophy Department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Begins December 2019 and runs through July 2021.
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Project Leaders
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Project Goals
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Jon McGinnis is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the philosophy department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He works in Medieval Islamic Philosophy. (website) Billy Dunaway is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and works in contemporary ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. (website) Scholarship
Over the 2.5-year life of the project, project leaders and visitors will produce scholarly articles, presentations, an edited volume, and a special journal issue exploring the contributions the Islamic tradition can make to contemporary debates about theological knowledge. Please check the Research and Events pages, which will be updated as the project progresses. |
There are many live and interesting questions about the epistemology of theology: can we know whether God exists, and if so, how? What can we know about theology? What does our best science tell us about these questions? These are not new questions, and existing scholarship in the philosophy of religion draws on the work of historical figures, especially from the Medieval Latin tradition, to explore answers to them. However the Islamic world also developed its own rich and sophisticated answers to the same questions. This project will bring the Islamic tradition into contact with contemporary Anglophone scholarship on the epistemology of theology. Opportunities
The project will fund multiple opportunities for scholars to contribute research on the project theme. These include: a funded research assistant position in the M.A. program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, visiting fellowships for students working on a Ph.D. dissertation, summer research stipends, intensive seminars on Islamic philosophy and contemporary epistemology of religion, and international conferences. Please check the Opportunities page for more details. |