Videos by Hannah C Erlwein
In this episode, we are looking at an epistle written by the 10th-century theologian, Abu'l-Hasan... more In this episode, we are looking at an epistle written by the 10th-century theologian, Abu'l-Hasan al-Ash'ari, and fittingly entitled "A Vindication of the Science of Kalam". Al-Ash'ari not only tells us about the arguments of the detractors of kalam, who despise it as "baleful innovation" - but he also tells us all the reasons why they are clearly wrong...
Audio: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 7 views
In this episode, we are looking at one of the trickiest theological problems which the practition... more In this episode, we are looking at one of the trickiest theological problems which the practitioners of the science of kalam investigated. This is the proof that the world is created by God. The kalam proofs were prompted by the many Quranic verses that declare God to be the world's creator - but the mutakallimun had to figure out what precisely the Quran meant by this, and this task was made ever more complicated by their encounters with adherents of other faiths who had their very own ideas of God's relationship to the world...
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 167 views
Papers by Hannah C Erlwein
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 34 (2024): 209-231, 2024
Ibn Sīnā famously opens The Metaphysics (Al-ilāhiyyāt) of The Healing (Al-šifāʾ) with a discussio... more Ibn Sīnā famously opens The Metaphysics (Al-ilāhiyyāt) of The Healing (Al-šifāʾ) with a discussion of what constitutes the subject matter of that science. Several candidates are introduced and subsequently dismissed, before "the existent qua existent" is identified as its subject matter. Among the candidates dismissed, he mentions "the ultimate causes for all existents, the four of them" (which are, however, things investigated [maṭālib] in this science). Here, Ibn Sīnā comes to problematise the notion of causality itself. He is adamant that "the existence of causes for things which are effects" is not self-evident, but needs to be proven by the metaphysician by means of a "demonstrative clarification" (bayān burhānī). He explains why sensation (ḥiss) and experience (taǧriba) cannot prove causality, before turning to its metaphysical proof. In this article, I investigate what Ibn Sīnā thought this "demonstrative clarification" of causality is. I present an analysis of his train of thought and a commentary on the various points he makes, leading up to his proof of causality. These points touch on problems of psychology, scientific method, and scientific proof, and can be unpacked by taking into account explanations he offers elsewhere.
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Im Beitrag „Grenzen zwischen Göttlichem und Menschlichem: Die Etablierung des perfekten Staates i... more Im Beitrag „Grenzen zwischen Göttlichem und Menschlichem: Die Etablierung des perfekten Staates in der islamischen Philosophie“ befasst Hannah C. Erlwein sich mit der politischen Philosophie des einflussreichen islamischen Philosophen Ibn Sina (gest. 427AH/1037AD). Dabei geht sie der Frage nach, worin für Ibn Sina die Funktion des perfekten Staates besteht, und zeigt auf, dass diese insbesondere mit dem Bestreben verbunden ist, dem Menschen zu seiner Vervollkommnung zu verhelfen. Menschliche Vervollkommnung kulminiert für Ibn Sina in der Ähnlichwerdung mit Gott. Desweiteren verdeutlicht Hannah C. Erlwein, dass Ibn Sinas politsche Philosophie trotz nicht zu verkennender griechischer Einflüsse ein religiöses Projekt ist, das von koranischen und islamischen Ideen durchdrungen ist. ----- Hannah C. Erlwein, “Grenzen zwischen Göttlichem und Menschlichem: Die Etablierung des perfekten Staates in der islamischen Philosophie” in: Annika von Lüpke, Tabea Strohschneider, Oliver Bach (eds), Limina: Natur – Politik. Verhandlungen von Grenz- und Schwellenphänomenen in der Vormoderne (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), pp. 47-62.
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Arguments for God's existence, it has often been argued in the secondary academic literature, for... more Arguments for God's existence, it has often been argued in the secondary academic literature, form an essential part of classical Islamic theology (ʿilm al-kalām) and philosophy (falsafa). In the past decades, numerous scholars have dealt with what could be termed the Islamic discourse on arguments for God's existence, and have commonly analysed these arguments making recourse to Immanuel Kant's (1724–1804) categorisation of such arguments as cosmological, teleological, or ontological. The great Ashʿarī theologian Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) is, unsurprisingly, seen as no exception to this: he, too, has been regarded as a participant in the aforementioned discourse, and in several of his major kalām works he introduces four methods to ‘prove the existence of the creator’. In this article, I will, however, argue that al-Rāzī had no concern for proving God's existence; the arguments in his kalām works, which, in the secondary academic literature, have been described as seeking to prove that God exists, it shall be suggested, serve a different purpose. This shall become clear when al-Rāzī’s commentary on the Qur'an, al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, is taken into account. Previous studies of al-Rāzī’s (alleged) arguments for God's existence have only focused on his kalām works proper, however, in the Tafsīr al-Rāzī not only presents the very same four kalām methods to ‘prove the existence of the creator’ and stresses that they originate in Qur'anic forms of argumentation, but he also places them in a thematic context which, in his theological works, is oftentimes lacking. This article therefore clarifies the objective underlying al-Rāzī’s arguments for the existence of the creator and explains their significance in his broader theological thought.
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Book Reviews by Hannah C Erlwein
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Journal of Qurʾanic Studies, Volume XVI, Issue 1, 2014
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Conference Presentations by Hannah C Erlwein
Workshop "Analogy and Justification in Premodern Science"
21-22 June 2023
Tel Aviv University and... more Workshop "Analogy and Justification in Premodern Science"
21-22 June 2023
Tel Aviv University and via Zoom
Organised by Hannah Erlwein (MPIWG Berlin) and Yael Barash (TAU)
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The conference brings new perspectives to Islamic discourses on ethics during the pre-modern peri... more The conference brings new perspectives to Islamic discourses on ethics during the pre-modern period across the disciplines of law, theology, philosophy, and adab. While ethics is defined in broad terms to encompass various scholarly discussions of morality, the conference adopts a contextualist approach to address the following issue: How did scholars think about ethics in their conception of the divine discourse on morality in light of the contingent nature of human reality? Earlier emic approaches to Islamic law led many to declare its literalist tendency an obstacle to rationalist ethics (as espoused, for example, by the Mu‘tazilite theologians, and by the philosophers). Exploring the question of contingency in Islamic ethics is predicated upon new findings in Islamic theories of law which not only underline jurists’ contextualist approaches to producing norms, but also the epistemological grounds of the theories which accommodate contingency (Johansen, Hallaq, Zysow, Gleave). In fact, in his recent work, Die Kultur der Ambiguität, Thomas Bauer has drawn attention to the complexity of Islamic normative discourses, depicting the tolerance of ambiguity as a key feature in the argumentation deployed in the production of the communally accepted in Islam. Evidently, these perspectives make room for adopting a contextualist approach to ethics; they help us overcome the tired opposition between scripturalism and rationalism as the only authoritative approaches to normativity in Islam.
Taking as central to its methodology Bauer’s perspectives, along with the contextual ethics of casuistry put forward by Jonsin and Toulmin in The Abuse of Casuistry, the conference is intended to explore further and more widely the contingency of ethical discourses in Islam. More specifically, discussions will include articulations of moral discourse in legal reasoning and argumentation, theological discussions of theodicy and divine command theories, the epistemology behind collecting moral knowledge in hadith collections, adab, aphoristic literature, rhetorical speeches and sermons, epistemological and ontological claims on morality, the reception of Aristotelian corrective philosophy of ethics and discussion of virtues. The conference will also serve to identify new questions, answers to which could give substance to the notion of the flexibility of norms across Islamic ethical discourses. Questions are to be answered from the perspective of each discipline, and speakers will be asked to reflect on the philosophical and theological implications that can be drawn. Comparative perspectives across the various Islamic sciences are especially encouraged.
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Books by Hannah C Erlwein
Hannah C. Erlwein, Arguments for God’s Existence in Classical Islamic Thought: A Reappraisal of the Discourse. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019., 2019
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Videos by Hannah C Erlwein
Audio version available at:
https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
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Follow the Kalamopod on:
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Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Audio version available at:
Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJPeJen2Iw_-SpxRu5L0QA
Follow the Kalamopod on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalamopod/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalamopod
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Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Audio version available at:
Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJPeJen2Iw_-SpxRu5L0QA
Follow the Kalamopod on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalamopod/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalamopod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Audio: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Audio: Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJPeJen2Iw_-SpxRu5L0QA
Follow:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalamopod/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalamopod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Papers by Hannah C Erlwein
Book Reviews by Hannah C Erlwein
Conference Presentations by Hannah C Erlwein
21-22 June 2023
Tel Aviv University and via Zoom
Organised by Hannah Erlwein (MPIWG Berlin) and Yael Barash (TAU)
Taking as central to its methodology Bauer’s perspectives, along with the contextual ethics of casuistry put forward by Jonsin and Toulmin in The Abuse of Casuistry, the conference is intended to explore further and more widely the contingency of ethical discourses in Islam. More specifically, discussions will include articulations of moral discourse in legal reasoning and argumentation, theological discussions of theodicy and divine command theories, the epistemology behind collecting moral knowledge in hadith collections, adab, aphoristic literature, rhetorical speeches and sermons, epistemological and ontological claims on morality, the reception of Aristotelian corrective philosophy of ethics and discussion of virtues. The conference will also serve to identify new questions, answers to which could give substance to the notion of the flexibility of norms across Islamic ethical discourses. Questions are to be answered from the perspective of each discipline, and speakers will be asked to reflect on the philosophical and theological implications that can be drawn. Comparative perspectives across the various Islamic sciences are especially encouraged.
Books by Hannah C Erlwein
Audio version available at:
https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJPeJen2Iw_-SpxRu5L0QA
Follow the Kalamopod on:
https://www.instagram.com/kalamopod/
https://twitter.com/kalamopod
https://www.facebook.com/Kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Audio version available at:
Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJPeJen2Iw_-SpxRu5L0QA
Follow the Kalamopod on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalamopod/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalamopod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Audio version available at:
Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJPeJen2Iw_-SpxRu5L0QA
Follow the Kalamopod on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalamopod/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalamopod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Audio: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Audio: Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod
Video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJPeJen2Iw_-SpxRu5L0QA
Follow:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalamopod/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalamopod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kalamopod
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
21-22 June 2023
Tel Aviv University and via Zoom
Organised by Hannah Erlwein (MPIWG Berlin) and Yael Barash (TAU)
Taking as central to its methodology Bauer’s perspectives, along with the contextual ethics of casuistry put forward by Jonsin and Toulmin in The Abuse of Casuistry, the conference is intended to explore further and more widely the contingency of ethical discourses in Islam. More specifically, discussions will include articulations of moral discourse in legal reasoning and argumentation, theological discussions of theodicy and divine command theories, the epistemology behind collecting moral knowledge in hadith collections, adab, aphoristic literature, rhetorical speeches and sermons, epistemological and ontological claims on morality, the reception of Aristotelian corrective philosophy of ethics and discussion of virtues. The conference will also serve to identify new questions, answers to which could give substance to the notion of the flexibility of norms across Islamic ethical discourses. Questions are to be answered from the perspective of each discipline, and speakers will be asked to reflect on the philosophical and theological implications that can be drawn. Comparative perspectives across the various Islamic sciences are especially encouraged.