Ahmed Alwishah

Associate Professor of Philosophy David Sanson

This volume presents a new English translation of Jalal al-Din al-Dawani's (1424-1502) treatise on the ancient problem of the Liar Paradox, along with an extensive historical introduction and a detailed commentary on the text. Al-Dawani was a distinguished Persian philosopher who wrote important texts in logic, philosophy, theology, and ethics. His text includes a critical discussion of several proposed solutions to the Paradox, and touches on a wide range of topics in philosophical logic and the philosophy of language, including the problem of empty names, the status of reductio ad absurdum, the possibility of self-reference, and the role of speaker intention in restricting the scope of subject and predicate terms. Al-Dawani's own proposed solution involves the articulation of a grounding constraint on truth-aptness of the same sort proposed in the 20th century by Hans Herzberger and Saul Kripke, a constraint that is defended in part by an analysis of the distinction between declarative and non-declarative discourse that is reminiscent of, but different than, J.L. Austin's analysis of the distinction between declarative and performative discourse. In this translation, Ahmed Alwishah and David Sanson introduce a text from very late post-Avicennan philosophy to the English speaking world. Not only does it introduce a new source for a vast field of academia, but it contributes to a growing period of scholarly interest. This translation will spur robust debate amongst students and scholars of the history of Islamic thought, logic, and the philosophy of language.

Al-Dawani and the Liar Paradox in the Islamic World

The Final Word

Ali Gheissari

John Wallbridge

This book offers a wide range of fresh and original contributions by a distinguished group of scholars. It will be recognized as a major scholarly publication by all those interested in Islamic and Iranian intellectual history and philosophy and those working in the field of comparative philosophy.

Essays in Memory of Hossein Ziai

Illuminationist Texts and Textual Studies

Josh Hayes

This volume of essays by scholars in ancient Greek, medieval, and Arabic philosophy examines the full range of Aristotle's influence upon the Arabic tradition. It explores central themes from Aristotle's corpus, including logic, rhetoric and poetics, physics and meteorology, psychology, metaphysics, ethics and politics, and examines how these themes are investigated and developed by Arabic philosophers including al-Kind, al-Frb, Avicenna, al-Ghazl, Ibn Bjja and Averroes. The volume also includes essays which explicitly focus upon the historical reception of Aristotle, from the time of the Greek and Syriac transmission of his texts into the Islamic world to the period of their integration and assimilation into Arabic philosophy. This rich and wide-ranging collection will appeal to all those who are interested in the themes, development and context of Aristotle's enduring legacy within the Arabic tradition.

Ahmed Alwishah

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