Analytical Philosophy and Epistemological Theory in Islamic Philosophy

This is a collection of lecture notes from Professor Mahdi Haeri’s philosophy classes, organized in two parts. The first part covers the professor’s series of lectures on analytical philosophy, which critiques and analyzes epistemological theories in Western philosophy based on Bertrand Russell’s book on philosophical problems. The second part investigates issues of philosophical epistemology from the Islamic philosophy perspective. Topics discussed include the proof of the external world, the subject of immediate perception, the objective reality of our knowledge of the external world, epistemological theory, intuitive and acquired knowledge, classifications and definitions of knowledge, correspondence in knowledge, proof of knowledge, the problem of mental existence, the relationship between the knower and the known, the unity of the intellect and the intelligible, and levels of perception. Throughout these discussions, comparisons and inquiries into the views of Eastern and Western philosophers are conducted.