Mr Julio César Cárdenas Arenas
Al-Qānūn al-kulī in al-Rāzī, Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Taymīyah:
Muslim Philosophy between Reason and Tradition
Julio César Cárdenas Arenas is a PhD Candidate in Religious Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He is also a MA Candidate in Islamic Culture at the Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia. His work focuses on comparative theology, medieval philosophy and Semitic philology.
Al-Qānūn al-kulī in al-Rāzī, Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Taymīyah: Muslim Philosophy between Reason and Tradition
The paper presents epistemological proposals that seek to resolve the possible contradiction between reason (al-'aql) and tradition (al-naql), understood through religious experience, rational discernment or mystical experience. The paper offers a comparative and critical reading of the rationalist and philosophical position of al-Rāzī and Ibn Sīnā in "The universal law” (al-qānūn al-kulī) on the precedence and superiority of reason over revelation and Ibn Taymīyah's legal and theological position that recognizes the precedence of revelation over reason (taqdīm al-'aql 'alá al-naql). My presentation will explore the diversity of Islamic thinking and recognise the epistemological limits of each proposal.