Фальсафа и эвиденциализм. Рецензия на: Booth A. Analytic Islamic Philosophy. New York & London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. 222 p.

Abstract

This article discusses Anthony Booth’s book “Analytic Islamic Philosophy”. This book is an introduction to Islamic philosophy, from its origin in the Middle Ages to its contemporary forms. A. Booth uses the language and conceptual apparatus of contemporary analytic philosophy in his exegesis, thereby attempting to bring the legacy of Islamic philosophy into focus. The central theme of the book is an evidentialistic interpretation of the special epistemic status of the prophet. The main figures of Medieval Islamic philosophy — al-Kindī, al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, al-Ġazālī, Ibn Rušd — are presented in chronologically order, together with an introduction to the basic themes of Islamic theology and the Greek philosophical tradition. The book then briefly introduces what the author calls “pre-modern” figures, including al-Suhrawardī, Mullā Ṣadrā and Ibn Taymiyyah, and all these thinkers, along with their medieval predecessors, are presented as forerunners to the more modern incarnation of Islamic philosophy, Political Islam. I question A. Booth’s use of the Cliffordian evidentialism (based on famous Clifford’s Principle) to analysis of the central problem. Firstly, this kind of evidentialism is very outdated and cannot in any way be regarded as a concept of contemporary analytic philosophy. Secondly, it is not immune to the objection from doxastic limits, which Booth does not mention. This objection, however, opens up new possibilities for analysis of the evidentialism and new hermeneutic ways of interpreting concepts of prophetic knowledge in the Islamic philosophical tradition. Thirdly, Booth’s analysis can be much more adequately conducted not by introducing many different kinds of evidentialism, but rather by the concept of doxastic practices. In the conclusion I consider the question in what ways contemporary analytic philosophy can be useful for the history of philosophy.