COURSE UNIT TITLE

: CAUSALITY AND ITS PROBLEMS IN ISLAMIC THOUGHTS

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
FDB 5188 CAUSALITY AND ITS PROBLEMS IN ISLAMIC THOUGHTS ELECTIVE 3 0 0 6

Offered By

Philosophy and Religious Sciences

Level of Course Unit

Second Cycle Programmes (Master's Degree)

Course Coordinator

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MEHMET AYDIN

Offered to

Philosophy and Religious Sciences

Course Objective

Examine the different explanations of causality formulated by philosophers, theologians and Sufis in Islamic thought.
Analyzing the understandings of causality developed and criticized depending on the Atomist, Aristotelian and Neoplatonist influences,
To investigate the nature of the relationship between God's relationship with the world and human beings and between cause and effect in the context of causality understandings, to analyze the necessity of causality.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   The student learns different definitions and explanations of causality.
2   Examines the criticisms directed to the understandings of causality.
3   Understands the nature of the relationship between cause and effect.
4   Analyzes causality.

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 Atomic, Aristotelian, and Neoplatonist Theories of Causality
2 The Causality Theory of Islamic Philosophers
3 Metaphysical Necessity: Necessary Water and Necessary Causality
4 Physical Necessity and Causality
5 Theory of Causality of the Kalamists: Occasionalism
6 Criticisms of Theologians to the Causality Theory of Philosophers
7 The Relationship Between God's Will and Power and Freedom
8 Mid term
9 The Nature of the Relationship Between Cause and Effect: Habit or Necessity
10 Causality and Miracles
11 Causality and Science
12 Ibn Rushd's Criticisms of the Theologians' Conception of Causality
13 Determinism and Freedom
14 Ibn Arabi and Divine names
15 Act of Creating, Determinism and Laws of Nature

Recomended or Required Reading

1. Majıd Fakhry, ISLAMIC OCCASIONALISM: And its Critique by Averroes and Aquinas, Routledge Taylor& Francis Croup, London And New York 2008.
2. John Losee, Theories of Causality : From Antiquity to the Present, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey 2011.
3. William J. Countenay, Covenant and Causality in Medieval Thought: Studies in philosophy, Theology and Economic Practice, Variorum Reprints London 1984.
4. John Dudley, Aristotle s Concept of Chance: Accidents, Cause, Necessity, and Determinism, State University of New York Press, Albany 2012.
5. Gazali, Filozofların Tutarsızlığı (Tehafütü l-Felasife), çev., Mahmut Kaya-Hüseyin Sarıoğlu, Klasik yayınları Istanbul 2014.
6. Ibn Rüşd, Tutarsızlığın Tutarsızlığı (Tehâfütü l-Felasife), I-II, Çev. Kemal Işık, Mehmet Dağ, Kırkambar Yayınları Istanbul 1998.
7. Robert Wisnovsky, Final and Efficient Causality in Avicenna s Cosmology and Theology, Quaestio, 2 (2002), 97 124.
8. Waterlow, Sarah. Nature, Change, and Agency in Aristotle s Physics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.
9. Richard Sorabji, Necessity, Cause and Blame: Perspectives on Aristotle s Theory. London: Duckworth, 1980.
10. Özgür Koca, Islam, Causality, and Freedom: From the Medieval to the Modern Era, Cambridge University Press, New York 2020.
11. Adi Setia, Atomism Versus Hylomorphism in the Kala¯m of al-Fakhr al-Dı¯n al-Ra¯zı¯, Islam & Science, 4.2 (2006), 113 140.
12. Adi Setia, Fakhr al-Dı¯n al-Ra¯zı¯ on Physics and the Nature of the Physical World: A Preliminary Survey, Islam & Science, 2.2 (2004), 161 180.
13. Sajjad H. Rizvi, Mulla¯ Sa dra¯ and Causation: Rethinking a Problem in Later Islamic Philosophy, Philosophy of East and West, 55.4 (2005), 570 583.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lecture, research, question-qnswer, work, analyse

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 MTE MIDTERM EXAM
2 FCG FINAL COURSE GRADE
3 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE MTE * 0.40 + FCG* 0.60
4 RST RESIT
5 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE * 0.40 + RST* 0.60


*** Resit Exam is Not Administered in Institutions Where Resit is not Applicable.

Further Notes About Assessment Methods

None

Assessment Criteria

The success of student is being determined by reference to his or her performance of mid term, final exam and course performance

Language of Instruction

Turkish

Course Policies and Rules

To be announced.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

mehmetaydi@deu.edu.tr

Office Hours

To be announced.

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 13 3 39
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 13 4 52
Preparation for midterm exam 1 15 15
Reading 4 5 20
Preparation for final exam 1 20 20
Final 1 2 2
Midterm 1 2 2
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 150

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13
LO.13345
LO.23345
LO.33345
LO.43345