Concepts in Islamic Philosophy

Islamic philosophers developed their theory of concepts within a broadly Aristotelian framework. From early on, however, they interpreted the Greek tradition in ways that lacked ancient precedents and gave rise to new sets of questions. This chapter begins by introducing the concept of concept developed in the classical period of Islamic philosophy, and then discusses the psychological question of how concepts are acquired. It then turns to the question of conceptual adequacy, and concludes with two challenges to the classical theory of real definition as the basis of adequate concepts. The focus is on Avicenna (d. 1037 CE), whose thought provided the starting point for much of the subsequent philosophy in the Islamic world, as well as the work of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 1210 CE) and Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 1191 CE), two of Avicenna’s most prominent critics in the philosophically vigorous twelfth century CE.