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Reversing the problem of evil
By Yujin Nagasawa, University of Oklahoma
The problem of evil—particularly in the form that emphasizes the intense severity and unfair distribution of suffering in the world—is widely regarded as a major challenge to theistic belief in an omnipotent and perfectly good God. In this paper I discuss Richard Swinburne’s theistic response to this version of the problem. I argue that, drawing on Swinburne’s approach, we can “reverse” the problem of evil. That is, we can show that the existence of profound and unevenly distributed suffering poses a greater challenge to atheism than to theism.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-025-09971-3
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Tags: #PoE #Evil #God #Atheism
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Rational Force of Analogy/Qiyās in Law
Logic of Law in Islamic and Contemporary Legal Reasoning
By Muhammed Komath, Qatar Debate Centre
Analogy is an inherently fragile form of argument, as it derives the conclusion from similarity, while overlooking dissimilarities. Yet law fundamentally depends upon analogical reasoning to ensure consistency and predictability in its rulings. This entanglement of fragility and necessity compels the legal traditions, both Islamic and contemporary, to articulate a theory of legitimacy that justifies analogy when applied in law. The most successful explanation among different considerations, I argue, is the one that is anchored in logic. This logical grounding is a shared feature among contemporary legal theorist Scott Brewer, the informal logician Douglas Walton, and the 12th-century Muslim jurist-logician al-Ghazzālī, as all three insist that the justification of legal analogy is logical. This paper aims to trace the thematic contours of these logical frameworks in order to demonstrate, drawing primarily on al-Ghazzālī’s two works: al-Mustaṣfā fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh and al-Muntaḥal fī al-Jadal,that al-Ghazālī’s model of analogical reasoning effectively integrates key elements of Brewer’s abduction model and Walton’s model of defeasible argument.
Link: https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v45i3.10212
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Tags: #Islam #Logic #Law #Ghazali
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‘I Am Darkness’: On Liar-Style Anti-Dualist Arguments in Kalām
By Mohammad Saleh Zarepour, University of Manchester
In the medieval Islamic world, dualism—i.e. the view that reality is constituted of two incompatible ultimate substances, the light and the darkness—was sometimes criticised by appealing to liar-style paradoxes. Here, I discuss three of such criticisms developed in the tradition of classical Islamic Kalām at around the same time by Abū Bakr al-Baqillānī (d. 1013), Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 1025), and ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī (d. 1037).
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2025.2549617
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Tags: #Islam #Kalam #Dualism
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Where in the Torah and Gospel Is the Promise of Qur’an 9:111 Found?
By Abdulla Galadari, Khalifa University of Science and Technology
Q. 9:111 speaks of a business transaction using covenantal language: God purchases from the believers their selves and their money in return for heaven. The verse claims that fighting in the way of God is sanctioned in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an. The verse is compared with the rabbinic commentary on the Shemaʿ, which is a covenant (accepting [the yoke of] the kingdom of heaven), and interprets “with all your self (soul)” as “unto death and martyrdom,” and “with all your strength” as “with all your money.” This concept is also echoed in the Gospels’ narratives, where they describe the cost of discipleship, in which Jesus's followers need to deny themselves, carry their crosses, sell all their possessions and give to the poor, and lose their lives for Jesus's sake. Once we understand the possible subtexts to which the Qur’an attempts to allude, it becomes more evident that Q. 9:111 is not necessarily sanctioning violence. Instead, this passage is more likely discussing a spiritual struggle or a submissive role in losing their lives for the sake of God.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.70008
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Tags: #Quran #Jesus #God #lReligion
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Aristotle’s insight on truth: ‘That p is true because p’
By Benjamin Schnieder, University of Vienna
Aristotle famously observed: That you are pale is true because you are pale—but not vice versa. This insight plays an important role in contemporary debates about truth by expressing truth’s dependency on being. However, how to account for this insight remains controversial. This paper employs the logic of grounding to derive Aristotle’s insight rigorously. The derivation requires a specific truth theory as its starting point. Here, Wolfgang Künne’s Modest Conception of Truth is chosen, but it can also be adapted to other theories of truth. As a by-product, this analysis uncovers a previously unnoticed problem in Künne’s theory—one for which I also propose a solution.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2025.2527710
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Tags: #Aristotle #Truth #Logic
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Jonah in the Qur’an and the Bible: A Theological Study
By Adam Dodds, Melbourne School of Theology; Joseph Kohring, Alphacrucis University College
This article examines the Qur’an’s theological use of biblical reflexes in relation to Jonah and Yūnus. In section 1, a tripartite categorization is proposed regarding the existing theories of theological intertextuality: essential continuity, qualified continuity, and essential discontinuity. Jonah and Yūnus are examined as a testcase for these three theological intertextual theories. Section 2 discusses the distinguishing features and literary genre of the biblical book of Jonah, including theological analysis, and concludes that Jonah is an anti-prophet who is not exemplary. Section 3 examines Yūnus in the Qur’an in the context of the punishment stories and qur’anic rasulology. Each of the six qurʾanic passages in which Yūnus appears is studied, along with a selection of tafsīr, before proceeding to critical theological reflection. In section 4, several elements of theological continuity are discussed between the qur’anic Yūnus and the biblical Jonah. Then, numerous instances of theological discontinuity are considered before offering a conclusion on which theological intertextual theory best fits the relation of the qur’anic Yūnus to the biblical Jonah.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2025.2547482
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #Quran #Exegesis
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Enabling Obedience: Exploring Qur’anic Norms in the Context of Obligations and Belief
By M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, SOAS University of London
During the course of my academic engagement with the Qur’an and in light of my recent writings in particular, in which I continue to interrogate Qur’anic styles and norms, I came to appreciate how the Qur’an does not merely expect but rather seeks to encourage compliance and obedience amongst the faithful. Of the many tools in its arsenal is a feature I will highlight and showcase here, that of Qur’anic ‘enablement’. This can easily be appreciated in the context of the Qur’an’s primary function as ‘guidebook’ (hudā)1 as opposed to ‘lawbook’.2 A selection of passages will illustrate how the Qur’an’s enabling language facilitates obedience in arenas as distinct and diverse as religious financial obligations, ritual practice, and sexual morality.
In each of the illustrative examples below we will find a focal set of Qur’anic verses that extol God’s attributes and explicate, in some manner, the individual’s relationship with the Divine and His Book, thereby serving to remind its audience of its covenant with Him. Positioning a reminder in this manner reinforces one’s relationship with God and reminds one of the gratitude and obedience due to Him, as such, these ‘interruptions’, or what may otherwise be termed ‘suspensions’, are essential to the ‘enabling’ outlined here.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2025.0608
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Tags: #Quran #History #Exegesis #Tafsir
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Ibn Masʿūd’s Preference for the Grammatical Masculine Form and its Impact on the Ten Readings
By Elaheh Shahpasand, University of Qur’anic Sciences and Thought
ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd (591–32/652) regarded the Qur’an as masculine and demanded that its readers treat it as such. He recommends that readers, whenever they were confused as to whether to use yāʾ (the sign of masculinity) or tāʾ (the sign of femininity), defer to the masculine. Unpacking the rationale behind this leads one to the tradition in Arab thought that privileges the masculine; the ḥadīth and literary scholars both marked their science as masculine. After some decades, Ibn Masʿūd’s word became similar to a qirāʾāt principle. This paper explores whether and how Ibn Masʿūd’s understanding impacted readers. It first endeavours to contextualise his work, through chains of transmission and content analysis. A second section goes on to analyse the influence of Ibn Masʿūd’s word on the ten readings, the qirāʾāt that are doubtful regarding masculine or feminine verbs (or those that possess female nominatives). The analysis shows that the readings of Ḥamza b. Ḥabīb (80–156/699–723), ʿAlī b. Ḥamza al-Kisāʾī (d. 189/805), and Khalaf b. Hishām (d. 229/844) do significantly defer to the masculine. This testifies to the considerable impact of Ibn Masʿūd, in particular, on Kufi readings. While older codices – particularly those of Āstān-e Quds-e Raḍawī Library – show that the grammatical deciphering of masculine/feminine results in no significant difference, codices that were influenced by Ibn Masʿūd or his Kufi associates show signs of a masculinity bias.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2025.0606
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Tags: #Quran #History #Exegesis #Tafsir
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The Maqāṣid as a Means for a Contemporary, Ethically Based Muslim Thought: A Comparison of the Views of Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Ṭaha Jābir al-ʿAlwānī
By Eva Kepplinger, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
The modern debate on the maqāṣid has become very diverse and includes numerous suggestions on how the maqāṣid are supposed to reform Muslim (legal) thought. For an illustration of this diversity, the approaches of two very different intellectuals are compared with each other. One scholar is the philosopher Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (b. 1944), whose reflections are contrasted with those of the jurist Ṭaha Jābir al-ʿAlwānī (d. 2016). This research shows that they share some similarities in their premises regarding the ability of the maqāṣid to reform Muslim thought; however, differences can be noticed regarding the content of their maqāṣid concepts and how their concepts should be applied in practice. While al-ʿAlwānī presents concrete suggestions for practical applications, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān understands his contributions as a theoretical basis that is supposed to be used by Muslim jurists in order to reestablish Islamic law on an ethical basis.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081080
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Tags: #Theism #TahaAbdAlRahman #Shariah
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Consciousness and Fundamental Finetuning
By Brandon Rickabaugh, Palm Beach Atlantic University
The state of fine-tuning debates has overlooked non-theistic personal explanations. Some underexplored accounts appeal to resources in the philosophy of mind, such as a consciousness-first ontology, like panpsychism. Philip Goff defends such a hypothesis (agentive cosmopsychism): anthropic fine-tuning is best explained by a conscious universe capable of fine-tuning itself. Drawing from Franz Brentano’s neglected teleological argument, I argue that agentive cosmopsychism, although helpful in moving the fine-tuning debates forward, fails insofar as it cannot explain what I call fundamental fine-tuning: the precise ontological features necessary for the act of fine-tuning. In conclusion, I explain how fundamental fine-tuning impacts teleological arguments in general by positively altering the prior probability of teleology on theism.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2025.41.2.3
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Tags: #Theism #Metaphysics #God #FineTuning
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Skeptical Theistic Steadfastness
By Jamie B. Turner, University of Birmingham
The problem of religious disagreement between epistemic peers is a potential threat to the epistemic justification of one’s theistic belief. In this paper, I develop a response to this problem which draws on the central epistemological thesis of skeptical theism concerning our inability to make proper judgments about God’s reasons for permitting evil. I suggest that this thesis may extend over to our judgments about God’s reasons for self-revealing, and that when it does so, it can enable theists to remain steadfast amid disagreement with epistemic peers who hold a contrary theistic belief (i.e., atheistic belief). For if we’re unable to make proper judgments about God’s reasons for self-revealing, then for all we know, God has some reason for not revealing himself to our apparent epistemic peer. Thus, their epistemic credentials needn’t provide reason to reduce one’s confidence to such a degree as to no longer uphold one’s theistic belief.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2025.41.2.1
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Tags: #Theism #Metaphysics #God
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Doing Without the Active Intellect: Abū l-Barakāt al Baghdādī and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī Against Ibn Sīnā
By Peter Adamson, Ludwig Maximilian University; Michael Sebastian Noble, University of Exeter
This paper looks at critiques of the notorious doctrine of the Active Intellect, first introduced by al-Fārābī and further developed by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna). The Active Intellect plays two roles in Ibn Sīnā’s thought. First, it somehow facilitates human thinking. Second, it provides form to suitably prepared matter to produce natural substances. Among later critics of this doctrine, particularly significant were Abū l-Barakāt al Baghdādī and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, who proposed that the same functions could be played by other causes, for instance celestial souls. The also paper contextualizes these objections within their broader philosophical commitments, for instance to the idea that humanity is divided into numerous “subtypes” that might each have their own celestial cause.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onaf013
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Tags: #Avicenna #AlFarabi #AlRazi
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Conscious Thought Under Sensory Deprivation: Avicenna’s Flying Man and ‘I’
By Mahrad Almotahari, University of Edinburgh
This paper does three things. First, it presents a new interpretation of Avicenna’s influential argument, the Flying Man. One nice feature of this interpretation is that it vindicates the argument’s validity. Unlike the cogito-inspired case for dualism, the Flying Man isn’t undermined by neglect of referential opacity. Second, it compares Avicenna’s argument with Anscombe’s take on the possibility of conscious thought under sensory deprivation. Finally, the paper concludes with a brief critical assessment. Several possibilities are considered.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onaf010
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Tags: #Avicenna #Dualism #Metaphysics
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Intuition (Ḥads) and Cogitation (Fikr) in Avicenna’s Logical Writings
By Deborah Black, University of Toronto
The scholarly attention paid to Avicenna’s psychological theory of intuition (ḥads) has eclipsed consideration of its logical function. This article examines Avicenna’s appeals to intuition in some logical texts in which the scope of intuition is extended beyond its principal role in discovering middle terms. I focus on an overlooked text from the beginning of Healing: Demonstration, where intuition is treated as one of three modes of mental instruction. I show that Avicenna’s account of the relation between intuitive instruction and the other two modes of instruction—cogitative and informative—sheds new light on familiar themes in his psychology of intuition, in particular autodidacticism and the relation between intuition and discursive thinking.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onaf012
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Tags: #Psychology #Avicenna #Metaphysics
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Objective Moral Facts Exist in All Possible Universes
By Richard Carrier, Independent Westar Fellow
The question of whether a God is needed to justify or ground moral facts is mooted by the fact that true moral facts exist in all possible universes that contain rational agents. This can be demonstrated in three stages. First, it is necessarily the case that true moral facts can only be described as the imperatives that supersede all other imperatives. Second, it is necessarily the case that for any rational agent there will always be true hypothetical imperatives that supersede all other imperatives. And third, if there are true hypothetical imperatives that supersede all other imperatives, they are then, necessarily, the only true moral facts. As this follows for any rational agent in any possible universe, the presence of God is irrelevant to the existence of moral facts. God could be more capable of identifying those true moral facts, but he cannot author or ground them. And though a God could casuistically alter moral imperatives by altering the corresponding physics, he is constrained in what he can make true this way by moral fundamentals that are always necessarily true. God is therefore not necessary for there to be moral facts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081061
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Tags: #Ethics #God #Morality #Metaphysics
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Limits on god, freedom for humans
By Nathan Huffine, University of Colorado
My plan has three parts. First, I address the concern that the problem between divine foreknowledge and free will is merely a pseudo-problem, arguing that it remains philosophically serious and warrants attention. To support this case, I consider Dennett’s dismissal of the divine foreknowledge-freedom problem, arguing that this dismissal is too hasty. Second, I argue that the eternity solution popularized by Stump and Kretzmann, and later defended by Rogers, Rota, Timpe, Diekemper, De Florio, and Frigerio, fails to respond to van Inwagen’s Freedom-Denying Prophetic Object thought experiment. Additionally, I offer an alternative explanation to van Inwagen’s for why even the mere possibility of divine prophecy threatens free will. Third, I defend van Inwagen’s limited foreknowledge approach by responding to recent critiques from Todd and Arbour and by addressing a uniquely Christian concern regarding Jesus as a freedom-denying prophetic object. The defense is not intended to defeat Todd and Arbour’s objections but only to neutralize them.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-025-09967-z
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Tags: #Christianity #God #Metaphysics
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Munazara and (non-)Authoritarian Argumentation
By Karim Sadek, Marmara University
I argue for broadening contemporary argumentation theory’s normative scope by introducing a novel category of argumentative norms that synthesize virtue-theoretic and procedural rules. These norms are derived from munazara, a discipline distinguished by its systematic integration of ethics into procedural rules. Framed within normative democratic theory, I advocate the requirement of non-authoritarian argumentation for regulating public debate, targeting howreasons are exchanged, not which reasons are offered. My contention is that munazara’s ethical-procedural norms not only enrich argumentation’s normative toolbox but also enable the operationalization of democratically enhancing public debate.
Link: https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v45i3.10214
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Tags: #Islam #Logic #Philosophy
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Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī on the Existence and Nature of the Jinn
By Shoaib Ahmed Malik, University of Edinburgh
This article reconstructs Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s (d. 1210) systematic treatment of the jinn in his Great Exegesis (al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr) and his summa The Sublime Objectives in Metaphysics (al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliya min al-ʿIlm al-Ilāhī). In these works, al-Rāzī treats the jinn not as a marginal curiosity but as a test case for probing core metaphysical categories such as substance, embodiment, and divine action. His analysis unfolds through a sequence of guiding questions. Do the jinnexist at all? If not, we arrive at (1) the Denialist View. If they do exist, they must be either immaterial or material. The first yields (2) the Immaterialist View. The second raises the further question of whether bodies differ in essence or share a single essence. If they differ, we arrive at (3) the Non-Essentialist Corporealist View. Notably, these first three views are associated, in different ways, with various figures in the falsafa tradition. If they share a single essence, this produces the Essentialist Corporealist position, which then divides according to whether bodily structure is metaphysically necessary for life and agency. If not necessary, this produces (4) the Essentialist Corporealist—Structural Independence View, associated with the Ashʿarīs. If necessary, it leads to (5) the Essentialist Corporealist—Structural Dependence View, associated with the Muʿtazilīs. Al-Rāzī rejects (1) and (5), but he leaves (2), (3), and (4) as live possibilities. While he shows greater sympathy for (4), his broader purpose is not to settle the matter but to map the full range of theological and philosophical options. Al-Rāzī’s comprehensive exposition reflects the wider dialectic between falsafa, Ashʿarī theology, and Muʿtazilī theology, showcasing a sophisticated willingness to engage and entertain multiple metaphysical possibilities side by side. The result is an exercise in systematic metaphysics, where the question of the jinn, as liminal beings, becomes a means for interrogating broader ontological commitments in Islamic theology and philosophy.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091141
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Tags: #Islam #AlRazi #Metaphysics #lReligion
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The Qur’an’S Narrative of Mary: Repressive or Emancipatory?
By Zahra Mohagheghian, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies
Muslim feminists often interpret the story of Mary in the Qur’an favourably, seeing it as a story of chosenness, if not prophecy. However, given the Qur’an’s masculine discourse and the historical context of the Middle East in Late Antiquity, a question arises about whether this representation could be understood in a fundamentally different direction. In other words, does the qur’anic representation have the capacity to turn from a narrative regarding, and in favour of, women to one that serves male interests and desires? In this article, I argue that there are various indications within the Qur’an suggesting that Mary’s representation could be interpreted as masculine and male-centred. Finally, I conclude that, due to its symbolic language, this qur’anic narrative serves as a paean for the triumph of a masculine religion and a victory song for the annihilation of all traces of matriarchy in early Islamic society and religion.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2025.2548711
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Tags: #Quran #Feminism #Religion
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Chanting Ṣalawāt as a Form of Self-Cultivation
By Tuba Işık, Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology,
This article offers a descriptive analysis of a specific form (uṣūl) of prophetic eulogy (ṣalawāt) as vocally performed within Sufi orders such as the Rifāʿiyya, Qādiriyya, and Jarrahiyya of today’s Türkiye. It combines a music–theoretical and music–sociological as well as ritual–theoretical perspective to examine how the structured performance of these chants functions both as a spiritual practice and as a means of social formation. Drawing on this dual perspective, the article analyses the underlying musical structures and elements of the ṣalawāt chant, such as melody, rhythm, harmony, modal frameworks, and dynamics. By examining how these formal aspects shape the aesthetic experience, emotional resonance, and theological significance of the eulogy, the study aims to highlight its performative and affective potential within Sufi devotional practice. Within the ritual framework of Sufi orders (ṭarīqa), this rhythmic and collective performance acts as a practice of tazkiya an-nafs(self-purification), cultivating attentiveness, moral refinement, and communal belonging through synchronized voice, breath, and bodily presence. The repeated invocation of the Prophet Muḥammad, venerated as the perfect human (al-insān al-kāmil), thus becomes a means of fostering inner transformation and spiritual proximity. In this way, ṣalawātchanting mediates religious meaning not only through text but through embodied experience and performative devotion.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091104
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Tags: #Islam #Sufism #Religion
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Experience vs. Explanation: Jinn and Demons in Islam and the Desert Fathers as a Case Study in Spirituality
By Noreen LuAnn Herzfeld, Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary
The discipline of spirituality can be described as the study of human experience of encounter with the transcendent and our lived response to that encounter. There are commonalities to our experience of transcendence that cross the divides of culture and language, commonalities which are often obscured when we theologize about our experience. If we examine the concept of jinn, both among pre-Islamic peoples and in the Qur’an and Hadith and compare this to the demons described in The Life of Antony and The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, we see remarkable similarities. These similarities give evidence that the beliefs in jinn in early Islam and in demons among the Desert Fathers are grounded in a common desert experience. As the centers of theological activity move away from the desert, we find this experience explained by Christianity and Islam in diverse ways. The contrast between descriptive narrative and the subsequent theologizing exemplifies a movement from common spiritual experience to differing theological interpretation.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091114
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #Quran #Spirituality
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A Byzantine Reading of the Qur’an: Was Sūrat al-Fātiḥa Included in the Earliest Greek Translation of the Qur’an (Third/Ninth Centuries terminus ante quem)? — A Philological Analysis
By Manolis Ulbricht, University of Notre Dame
This paper discusses whether Sūrat al-Fātiḥa was part of the early Greek translation of the Qur’an used by Nicetas of Byzantium in the third/ninth century. The first sura is not expressly quoted in Nicetas’ polemic Refutation of the Qur’an, which preserves extensive fragments of the translation. Some passages in this anti-Islamic work, however, allude to the existence of Sūrat al-Fātiḥa even if it might not have been understood as a proper sura (κεφάλαιον/kephalaion, ‘chapter’) of the Qur’an. Through a philological analysis of specific passages in the Refutation, I reevaluate the question of how to understand Nicetas’ explanation of and allusion to introductory verses of the Qur’an. This investigation will contribute to the reconstruction of the original text form of the Greek translation of the Qur’an and the early understanding of the Qur’anic text corpus as such.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2025.0607
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Tags: #Quran #History #Exegesis #Tafsir
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What Were the Most Popular tafsīrs in Islamic History? Part 2: A Preliminary Profile of the Top 50 Works and their Authors
By Samuel J. Ross, Texas Christian University
Part 1 of this article (JQS 25:3) shared the results of a multi-year project to convert the most important union catalogue of Arabic tafsīr manuscripts, al-Fihris al-shāmil, into a searchable database. The paper used this database to identify the most longitudinally popular commentaries on the Qur’an and assess the extent to which academic scholarship had previously studied them.
The present article (Part 2) seeks to provide a preliminary profile of the top 50 tafsīr works and their authors. It examines the geographical and chronological patterns that characterise these ‘best-sellers’ and explores how these works may have achieved their fame. Part 2 concludes with new questions for the field and a consideration of the potential relevance of the top 50 tafsīr works for the field of academic Qur’anic Studies itself.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2025.0605
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Tags: #Quran #History #Exegesis #Tafsir
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The Universe Didn’t Begin Uncaused
A New Argument for the Kalām Causal Principle
By David Lu, Stanford University
The causal principle of the Kalām cosmological argument—Everything that begins to exist has a cause—remains controversial. One common objection is that while the principle may apply to things within the universe, it does not apply to the universe itself. Here, I argue that if the universe began uncaused, then there is an extremely high probability that the universe began just moments ago with the appearance of age. However, I further argue that the general agreement of independent estimates for the universe’s age provides powerful empirical evidence that if the universe began to exist, then the universe has a cause.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2025.41.2.5
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Tags: #Theism #Metaphysics #Kalam
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In God We Trust, or Why the Argument for Causal Finitism Should Not Convince Theists
By Enric F. Gel, University of Barcelona
Causal finitism claims nothing can have an infinite causal history. An influential defense of this position uses infinity paradoxes to argue that, if causal finitism is false, several impossible scenarios would be possible. In this paper, I defend that theists should not be persuaded by this argument. If true, this is an important development, since causal finitism is often argued for by theists as a core premise in Kalam-style cosmological arguments for theism. I extend the same analysis to an argument in favor of temporal finitism and conclude that my point may generalize to any reasoning of a similar structure.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2025.41.2.2
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Tags: #Theism #Metaphysics #God #Kalam
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‘No’ing That You Don’t Know: Ibn Sīnā on Meno’s Paradox and Its Implications for the Sciences
By Jon McGinnis, University of Toronto
In “Avicenna on Meno’s Paradox,” Michael Marmura provides a translation with comments on Ibn Sīnā’s chapter from The Book of Demonstrationwhere Ibn Sīnā resolves Meno’s paradox. Marmura, however, does not consider in detail the chapters leading up to his resolution. There Ibn Sīnā outlines his unique understanding of how to undertake a scientific inquiry, which not only underlies his solution to Meno’s paradox, but also informs his approach throughout his monumental summa of philosophy, the Shifāʾ. The present study considers this broader context for his solution to the paradox and concludes with a case study from Ibn Sīnā’s Physics, where one sees his scientific method in practice.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onaf011
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Tags: #Avicenna #Metaphysics #Science
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Avicenna on the Disunity of Corporeal Form in the Elements
By Celia Hatherly, MacEwan University
Scholars disagree about whether Avicenna’s corporeal form exists in the elements as a numerically distinct substantial form. By translating texts that have not yet been brought to bear on this debate, I argue that it is. I also look at two attempts by contemporary scholars to show that the disunity of corporeal and elemental forms is incompatible with Avicenna’s understanding of substance. I argue that both attempts fail since the relationship between corporeal and elemental forms is such that the elemental form can exist in the corporeal form without turning the elemental form into an accident and without violating Avicenna’s rule that substances do not exist in a subject.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onaf017
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Tags: #Avicenna #Philosophy #Metaphysics
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Ibn Sīnā on Future Contingency
By Mohammad Saleh Zarepour, University of Manchester
Analysing the theory of future contingency that Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) has developed in chapter I.10 of his The Interpretation (Al-ʿIbāra from the logic part of Al-Shifāʾ) and criticising the rival interpretations of this chapter, I argue that, according to him, the future is open not only epistemically but also ontically and alethically. This means that there are future propositions expressing future states of affairs whose occurrence or nonoccurrence is not yet settled. Such a proposition does not have a settled truth-value. It is neither true nor false. Accordingly, neither such a proposition nor its negation can be known.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onaf010
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Tags: #Avicenna #Contingency #Metaphysics
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The Moral Hope Argument
By Eric Reitan, Oklahoma State University
This essay develops a distinct moral argument for the reasonableness of believing in God (conceived as a perfectly good creator) inspired by the pragmatic argument for “the religious hypothesis” advanced by William James in “The Will to Believe.” It also contextualizes the argument relative to familiar moral arguments, notably those of C.S. Lewis and Kant. Briefly, the argument developed here holds that when facing more than one coherent picture of reality, each of which could be true based on the arguments and evidence but only one of which fulfills the hope that in a fundamental way reality is on the side of moral goodness (what I call “the ethico-religious hope”), a reasonable person could opt to believe in the hope’s fulfillment and live accordingly. Following James’ approach, however, this argument does not imply that others who do not adopt such a picture are necessarily irrational or less rational.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081060
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Tags: #God #Morality #Metaphysics
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Avicenna, Meaning, and Causation
By Seyed N Mousavian, Loyola University Chicago
Avicenna’s view on “abstraction,” particularly on the initial acquisition of the intelligible forms corresponding to natural kinds, has been hotly debated in the recent scholarship. In this paper, after introducing the problem and quickly reviewing the literature, I will propose a new interpretation, called “Avicennan Abstraction,” according to which Avicenna’s epistemology of abstraction is explainable in light of his semantics of different types of “meaning” and metaphysics of causation, i.e., essential and accidental causes.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onaf016
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Tags: #Avicenna #Causation #Metaphysics
