Ibn Haldun University Philosophy Department provides multiple and pluralistic master's programs, encompassing Ancient, Islamic, Turkish, and Western (Continental) philosophical traditions. Students will have the opportunity to specialize in any field of philosophy by selecting related courses. This graduate program is designed as an initial phase for the doctorate program planned to be open soon. With its multi-directional formation, the program aims to educate and give vision to candidates, enabling them to analyze Islamic philosophy not only as a historical phenomenon but also research in the context of contemporary philosophy. Philosophy Department enhances its scientific strategy accordingly.
Assoc. Prof. Enis Doko
The program brings together theories and perspectives arising from the history of philosophy and taking into account the classical and modern debates. In this respect, the program is designed to provide participants with in-depth background on the history of philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Turkish thought and philosophy, and Continental philosophy, including the phenomenologic methods. Some of the research areas are:
This program may exceptionally be useful for the following:
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This course aims to widen students’ perception and awareness of topics of interest to philosophy through seminars offered by faculty, graduating thesis students, and guests from academia. In addition, each graduate student who prepares to defend their thesis is expected to give a seminar related to their thesis topic.
This course aims to provide students with methods for carrying out scientific research, such as how to pursue scientific problems, how to use materials, how to discuss findings, how to make references in a paper etc.; the students will be knowledgeable about the topics such as publishing ethics, education and ethics, ethical justification.
PHIL 510-539 Turkish and Islamic Philosophy
Islamic philosophy is one of the major philosophical traditions. This course introduces the theological background, translation movements, and primary schools of Islamic philosophy at an advanced level.
We divide Islamic thought into the period of mutaqaddimeen and mutaakhireen. The first one is both periods of formation and of becoming classic. The main themes of the course are what knowledge is, the source of knowledge, the possibility of knowledge, truth, intuition, concept, and nafs. We focus on the epistemological theories of philosophers such as al- Farabi, İbn Sina, QadiAbd al-Jabbar, and Bakıllani.
This course is about the second classical period of Islamic philosophy and a close examination of theories of knowledge of Juweinî, Ghazali, İbn Rushd, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Sayyid Sharif al- Jurjanî, and Qonawî.
This course focuses on the philosophical characteristics of Ishraqi philosophy and its essential representatives such as Suhrawardy, Molla Sadra, etc.
This course discusses ethical theories in Islamic Tradition from different branches of Islamic thought. The literature of Islamic ethical thought consists of works belonging the various disciplines such as theology (kalam), Sufism, and philosophy. After dealing with, the relation between ethics and religion in the context of kalam, the concept of kamâl (perfection) in the context of Sufism, we focus on the philosophical theories of the figures such as Nafsani, Abu Zayd el-Balkhî ve Abu Bakr Zakariya al-Râzi (Razes), Kindi, Avicenna, Ibn Miskawayh, Tusi.
Mu’tazila is known as the Islamic school, which founds kalam (Islamic theology). It is not only crucial for theology but also Islamic philosophy in general. This course introduces the school of Mu’tazila and examines the philosophical and theological theories of its leading figures, such as Wasil bin Ata, Nazzam, Jahiz, and Qadi Abd al-Jabbar.
Farabi is a prominent Islamic philosopher. This course focuses on logic, ethics, and metaphysics. Students read selected texts from his essential works.
Ibn Sina is one of the greatest philosophers of all time. This course focuses on his theories ranging from ethics to metaphysics. Students read selected texts from his essential works.
Ghazali is a theologian, philosopher, and great Islamic scholar; he is the most famous critic of falasifa. This course introduces his criticism of falasifa and his theoretical contributions to various fields of philosophy and theology.
Tahâfut is a series of works of polemic spanning centuries after Ghazali in the Islamic World. Ghazali wrote a book entitled Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of Philosophers) to show that philosophers erred in metaphysical matters. The writing of tahafut continued after Ghazali. This course examines the controversial works of various writers of tahâfut, such as Ghazali, Averroes, Alaaddin Tûsi, and Hocazade.
As B. Russell said, Averroes is a new beginning for West. His ideas about metaphysics, epistemology, and the relation between religion and philosophy have been crucial for the course and development of Western thought. This course examines both his philosophy and his influence on the schools of Paris, Bologna, and Padua in Europe, which played a vital role in the emergence of modern philosophy.
This course introduces the leading philosophers of Andalus, such as Ibn Bajja, Ibn Tufail, and Ibn Rushd, etc., in focusing on their essential philosophical works.
Ibn Khaldun is one of the most influential philosophers of Islam, the first historical thinker of the history of philosophy, and arguably the founder father of modern social sciences. This course focuses only on Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah. It explores his philosophical method and his theory of human, his theory of knowledge, metaphysics, morality, and his perspectives of the economy concerning his predecessors.
This course focuses on the thinkers who had critical and negative attitudes to falsafa in Islamic thought, such as Ibn Taymıyya, Ibn Kayyım al Javziyya, Ghazali, Ibn Khaldun, and some mystical thinkers.
This course examines the problem of modernization – Westernization, the relationship between religion and modernization, the change in Islamic thought, and the effect of these processes in Muslim societies, as well as basic questions, concepts, ideas, and schools in contemporary Islamic thought concerning modern Turkish thought. It explores the evolving process of the Islamic world from the classical period to modernity. This course examines the following thinkers: Said Halim Pasha, Babanzade, Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır, Muhammad İqbal, İzmirli İsmail Hakkı, Afgani, Musa Bigiyef, Malik Nabi, Abduh and Rashid Rida.
Akbariyyah is a Sufi and philosophical school attributed to Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, also known as The Greatest Master. Ibn Arabi, especially with his view of the unity of being (wahdah al-wujoud), has been very influential in Turkish thought throughout history. This course examines the metaphysical theories of Ibn Arabi, his disciple Qonevi and Davud al-Kayserî.
This course examines the quiddity of Turkish thought, its conceptual framework, the methods for studying it, its relation to Islamic thought, as well as its process of development from Seljuqs, through the Ottoman Empire, to the republic period. Sadraddin Qonevi, Davud al-Kaysari, Molla Fanari, Kafiyaji, and Hocazadah are the philosophers as topics of the course.
This course examines the second half of Ottoman Turkish thought until 19. century. Kemal Pashazadah, Tashkoprizadah, Qinalizadah, Galanbawi, Haji Khalifa, Yanyali Esad Efendi, and Mehmed Shirvani are the thinkers on the topics of the course.
This course focuses primarily on two Ottoman Turkish thinkers, Kemalpashazade and explores his philosophical and theological ideas.
Taşköprüzade is a prominent Ottoman Turkish philosopher who wrote extensively on metaphysics, division of sciences, and morality. This course analyzes his ideas in the context of fundamental disciplines of philosophy.
This course examines the philosophical and political ideas of Turkish thinkers from 19-20—century at the graduate level. Said Halim Paşa, Babanzade, Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır, Şehbenderzade Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi Efendi, İzmirli İsmail Hakkı, Mehmet Akif, Cemil Meriç, Nurettin Topçu, Sezai Karakoç, İsmet Özel.
This course examines pre-Islamic and early Islamic Turkic thought such as Tengrism, Turkic myths, toere (töre), Turkic thought of state and society, and the thinkers such as Yusuf Has Hajib, Mahmud al-Kashgari, Ahmad Yasawi.
This course examines metaphysical theories formulated in the first classical period of Islamic philosophy in the framework of the problems such as the meaning of being, the relationship between being and unity, potentiality and actuality, universals, ideas, causality, unity and diversity, emanation, the relationship between God and universe, nature and habit, origination and possibility, theories of creation, free will, the problem of evil. Students read selected texts from the works of Kindi, Farabi, Avicenna, Baqillani, Juweini, and Qadi Abd al-Jabbar.
Ghazali is a cornerstone not only in kalam but also in appropriating the heritage of peripatetic Muslim philosophers such as Kindi, Farabi, and Ibn Sina by the later generations of thinkers. This course focuses mainly on the metaphysical theories of Ghazali, Razi, Sayyid Sharif Jurjani, on the one hand, and Ibn Rushd, Qonevi, on the other hand. The thinkers of this period discuss the same problems (God, nature, essence and existence, causation, theories of creation, free will, etc.) as the thinkers of the first classical period. However, the ideas and problems gained more specific and complex formulations in this period. Students read selected texts from Juweinî, Ghazali, Averroes, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Sayyid Sharif al- Jurjanî, and Qonawî.
PHIL 540-559 Ancient Philosophy
This course focuses on pre-Socratic philosophy from its beginning. The following figures are included: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Zeno, Melissus, Democritus, and Diogenes of Apollonia. In addition, other Greek authors such as Hippocrates, Sophocles, and Thucydides will be read as a requirement of the context.
Plato is arguably the greatest philosopher of all time. To trace Plato’s development of thought, we focus on his Socratic dialogues such as Apology, Crito, Laches, Lysis, Charmides, Ion, and Euthyphro.
This course deals with his middle dialogues such as Meno, Phaidon, Republic, Symposium, etc. Theory of forms and the problem of soul, morality, and critique of art are the course's main topics.
This course focuses on Plato’s later dialogues, such as Theaetetus, Sophist, and Parmenides. The central problem, of course is the problem of knowledge (episteme) and being.
This course focuses on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics. Aristotle’s other texts related to epistemology may be added to the study. Aristotle is concerned with the problem of knowledge and essence, which will be the course's central themes. Besides, the texts from Averroes’ commentary on Posterior Analytics are read.
Aristotle’s Metaphysics is one of the most influential works in the entire history of philosophy. This course gives a close reading of this monumental work.
Plotinus is a Hellenistic philosopher known as the founder of neo-platonism. He profoundly influenced the thinkers and philosophers from Islamic and Christian traditions such as Farabi, Ibn Sina, Pseudo Dionysius, Erigena, etc. This course focuses on his Enneads to explore his theory of emanation, beauty, goodness, truth, etc.
Humans became a central problem of philosophy through the Sophist philosophers in Ancient Greek. This course examines the relativistic ethical theories of Sophists, the moral realism of Sokrates, the heterogeneous ethical theories of Socratic schools, Plato’s theory of ethics which is based on his understanding of the tripartite soul, Aristotle’s ethics of eudemonia, and the views of Hellenistic schools such as Sceptics, Epicureans, Stoics.
This class tries to understand the general place of the philosophy of Nietzsche in the history of philosophy based on the concepts of nihilism, the will to power and overman, etc.
PHIL 560-579 Western Philosophy
This course examines essential theologians and philosophers of medieval Christianity such as Origenes, Augustinus, Boethius, Erigena, Abelardus Aquinas, and William of Ockham and discusses its central problems such as the problem of universals, God, the issue of evil, divine attributes, divine foreknowledge, and human free will, logic.
This course examines major ethical perspectives in Western tradition, such as Christian ethics, cultural relativism, deontological ethics, pragmatism, utilitarianism, existential ethics, etc., and the theories of prominent figures such as Aquinas, Hume, Kant, Mill, Rawls, Nietzsche, Sartre.
Descartes is known as the founder of modern philosophy. This course focuses exclusively on Descartes’ philosophy through closely reading his important works such as Meditations on First Philosophy, Principles of Philosophy, etc.
We examine the constitutive elements of metaphysics of Leibniz, his understanding of physics, his criticism of Cartesianism, his position against Locke in the context of rationalism, empiricism debates, his teaching on monads, his views on pre-established harmony, theodicy and evil, small perceptions, God, mathesis Universalis, and reconciliation mission.
This course enables students to focus on Kant’s epistemology, ethics, and his criticism of metaphysics through significant works such as Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, Critique of Judgment, etc.
Hegel and Husserl are two significant philosophers of Western philosophy and formulated different phenomenologies. Husserl is not sympathetic to Hegel as a philosopher. However, there are some common points and important discrepancies between their epistemological theories. This course compares their epistemological approaches and explores how they developed different strategies in formulating their phenomenologies. Husserl’s Ideas and Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit are the primary texts of reading.
This course dealt with Hegel’s system by focusing on his essential books such as Phenomenology of Spirit, Reason in History, etc., about the surrounding German philosophical tradition.
This course deals with essential themes in Hume’s philosophy, such as the problem of knowledge, causation, his philosophy of religion, etc. Students read selected texts from his related works.
This course focuses on Husserl through his various works such as Logical Investigations, Ideas, On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time, Cartesian Meditations, and Crisis of European Sciences. We analyze the selected texts from these works and examine specific issues of Husserl’s phenomenology, such as temporality, inter-subjectivity, and corporeality.
This course focuses primarily on Logical Investigations, one of Husserl’s major books. Logical Investigations are very influential in shaping contemporary Continental philosophy in 20. century. The foundation of logic, the problem of knowledge, and consciousness are the course's main topics.
Husserl’s transcendental turn characterizes ideas. We focus on transcendental phenomenology with a close reading of Husserl’s Ideas.
This course focuses on reading and commenting on Cartesian Meditations, which is very important for the Cartesian formulation of phenomenology.
This course examines Husserl’s analysis of inner time consciousness, basic modes of consciousness such as time, perception, memory, and imagination for disclosure. It discusses the problems related to intentionality through phenomenological reflection.
Heidegger is one of the most influential philosophers of metaphysics in 20. century, which deepened Husserlian phenomenology in the context of the question of being. This course analyzes the basic concepts of Heidegger’s philosophy and discusses his ideas about metaphysics, and the relationship between phenomenology and ontology. The student read selected texts from Being and Time and his other important works.
Critical Theory is a pessimistic philosophy and one of the main philosophical traditions in Continental Philosophy. This course examines the writings of Karl Marx, such as Manuscripts, the German Ideology, the Grundrisse, Capital, and the essential works of the leading figures of Critical Theory, such as Horkheimer, Benjamin, Adorno, and Habermas, who are inspired by Marx, although they are critical of him.
The critics made Rousseau, one of the preeminent Enlightenment philosophers, towards the modern social structure. Rousseau’s understanding of nature and culture. His perspective on the concepts of civilization and private property. His theory of “natural man.” Influences inherited from Hobbes and Spinoza; his effect on Kant and Marx. The development of language, thought, and civilization. His critics of the development of sciences and arts. The concept of inequality among humanity. His views on education. Contractual tradition and his suggestions.
German Idealist tradition is one of the most influential and most affluent philosophical traditions in history, so some compare it to Ancient Greek intellectual tradition. This course examines German idealists such as Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. In addition, the students read selected texts from Prologomena, Science of Knowledge, System of Transcendental Idealism, and Differenzschrift.
Rationalism and empiricism are two rival philosophical positions in Western philosophy. The former is characterized as an epistemological position attributed to the leading philosophers of Continental Europe, and the latter is described as an epistemological position attributed to the leading philosophers of Britain. Descartes is the first representative of rationalism and the initiator of modern philosophy, which can be seen as an attempt to answer the questions caused by Cartesian philosophy. This course focuses primarily on the epistemological and metaphysical theories of Continental rationalist philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Students read selected texts from the major works of these philosophers.
This course focuses on British empiricist philosophers such as Locke, Hume, and Berkeley. We discuss specific issues such as sources of knowledge, mind, perception, the role of reason in cognition, causality, ideas, truth, and the foundation of logic.
PHIL 580-598 Disciplines and Themes of Philosophy
This course introduces the main problems of knowledge in detail and closely reviews the works of major philosophers from Ancient, Islamic, and Western philosophical traditions.
This course deals with major problems and themes such as what metaphysics is, existence, essence, God, substance, reason, etc., in giving a close reading of the texts from the works of prominent metaphysical thinkers such as Parmenides, Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Ibn Sina, Heidegger, etc.
The course examines beauty and artworks at the graduate level and sheds light on the arts of different traditions. Students read selected texts from essential works of major philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Avicenna, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Hartmann, Heidegger, and Adorno.
Philosophy of biology is a branch of philosophy of science that deals with various problems and issues raised by biology in relating biology to the topics such as causation and explanation, progress, history, and reductionism. The cases are discussed in the context of ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. This course comprehensively studies philosophical matters of biological knowledge.
Can “Evil” be defined, what are the challenges, and can it be thought apart from “to Agathon”? Is it possible to envision the good and the evil independent of the concepts of “Algos-hedone”? “Is there an Evil in itself / Absolute evil? Where does evil fall in the distinction of Aesthesis/noesis? Is the human soul prone to evil? When considered in the context of “To on – me on” problems, does the notion of “kakon” fall under the category of ethical ground, or does it have ontological and epistemological implications? Can philosophy alone answer the question of evil, or does it have to be nourished by resources such as religion, law, art, etc.?
Historical Background: the state and the tripartite society structure in Ancient Greece; pre-democratic era, formation of city-states, slavery system, ancient economy, loan and interest problem, Solon period and reforms, construction of assemblies, the conditions that led to the coming of Peisistratos, the Peisistratos reforms and the establishment of democracy, similarities between the historical conditions in Ancient Greece and the English Magna Carta and the French Revolution. Philosophical Background: Can the majority's opinion be a criterion of truth? Sokrates’ struggle with ethical relativism. Apology of Socrates and his execution. Can democracy be seen as a type of “Western ideology”? Has democracy transformed into a new “religion”? Is democracy a final form? What are its metaphysical grounds? Is a perspective possible in terms of the Heraclitus-Parmenides conflict?
This course surveys key topics such as meaning, the relationship between meaning and truth, usage, origin, and nature of language in the philosophy of language at the graduate level. The course will discuss the theories from Ancient, classical Islamic, and Western, especially from Analytic philosophy in which the philosophy of language became central.
In this course, we examine the emergence of “civilization” as an idea, the concepts of “Madinah,” “madaniyyah,” “umran” and the views of Farabi and Ibn Khaldun, Roman period and concepts of “cives,” “civitas”; perception of East and West, the myth of Babylon, “Homoios” and “heteros”; the rediscovery of Antiquity and Humanism after the Middle Age; the myths of Lucifer and Prometheus, the effects of enlightenment philosophy, the critiques brought by Cemil Meriç. J.-P. Sartre, F. Fanon, Edward Said in terms of colonialism and post-colonialism; the theses of the end of ideologies and the clash of civilizations, Post-modernism, and its ending.
Pantheism is both philosophical and religious thought. This course examines different formulations of pantheism in the history of philosophy and religion. Students read the selected texts from pantheistic philosophers and religious texts. The works of Plotinus, Ibn Arabi, Qonevi, and Spinoza are comparatively examined together with the texts from Eastern thought.
This course examines basic concepts and problems of the philosophy of science; the quiddity and trait of science, magic, how to differentiate it from other types of knowing, the structure of scientific development; the views of leading figures of philosophy of science such as Kuhn, Feyerabend, Popper.
This course will initially discuss politics, political science, and political philosophy. Classical political philosophy will focus on Plato’s and Farabi’s philosophies. This will be followed by a discussion of the state of nature, social contract, and the emergence of government in Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. A separate meeting will be devoted to Ibn Khaldun’s concept of the state and politics. The course will then discuss various theories about justifying the state: social contract, tacit consent, hypothetical consent, Utilitarianism, and Anarchism (which rejects the state).
Further, it will focus on the question “who should rule?”. This part will include ideas and practices of democracy, Plato’s fierce opposition to democracy, Rousseau’s concept of the general will, and his idea of the republic. Finally, the course will discuss the concepts of liberty and freedom, the place of liberty, justifications of liberty, freedom of thought, liberalism, its critiques, and Rawlsian theory of justice.
This course examines the main topics of moral philosophy at the graduate level. Students read selected texts from Ancient, Islamic, and Western traditions together with contemporary issues caused by scientific and technological developments in the present day.
In this course, we trace Greek and Islamic roots of Western tradition in philosophy, literature, and scientific thought. The works of Western philosophers, poets, and men of letters are comparatively examined with the Muslim and Greek sources.
This course will explore contemporary issues in the philosophy of religion. Students will gain up-to-date, in-depth, and detailed instruction in topics such as the concept of God, arguments for the existence of God, the nature of and relationship between faith and reason; arguments against the existence of God, religious realism and anti-realism, religious experience, and the nature of religious language.
This course focuses on the relationship between Modern Science and Islam. We present important contemporary scientific theories such as Special and General Theory of Relativity, Quantum Theory, Big Bang Theory, Theory of Evolution, and Modern Neurology. Then we evaluate and discuss some important implications of these theories for theistic religions and Islam specifically. Our course also aims to outline possible approaches to the relationship between science and religion.
The course is divided into two sections: literary and philosophical. In the first half students will engage with literary classics of the pre-modern era from the 2nd millennium BCE to the 14th century CE, A major concern of this section of the course is to engage students with primary texts that they will be expected to examine closely. Key questions include: How do religious beginnings inform creative expression and the writing of universal histories?. How does a text become a classic? The second half of the course will expose students to historical theories and literary approaches to civilization studies through relevant classical texts. We shall choose a text each week and a perspective in this objective and try to understand what kind of historical framework emerges out of this text.
The main aim of the course is to look at the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence. The course will consider the arguments about the possibility of creating artificial intelligence, as well as the metaphysical, ethical, and social implications of human interaction with intelligent machines. Some of the questions we will tackle are: Could a computer have a mind? What kind of machine would this be? Exactly what do we mean by ‘mind’ anyway? Could computers have free will or moral responsibility? The course will be interdisciplinary covering topics from Philosophy, Neuroscience, Psychology, Computer Science, and Linguistics. Hence can be of wider interest.