Leibniz and China: Religion, Hermeneutics, and Enlightenment

Between Enlightenment and Romanticism: Some Problems and Challenges in Gadamer’s Hermeneutics

Gadamer’s Ambivalence toward the Enlightenment Project

This essay explores Gadamer’s ambivalent relationship with modernity.  Gadamer is a prominent critic of the Enlightenment project.  His criticisms are both theoretical and practical.  Theoretically, representationalism is at the center of modern epistemology for Gadamer.  Practically, Gadamer sees the demotion of prudence (phronesis) as fundamental to the “bad” Enlightenment.  Gadamer’s attempt...

Enlightenment and Islam in Iran: The Case of Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh

Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh is considered one of the most important and influential personalities in the religious-social life of contemporary Iran. He began his cultural activities writing dramas and criticizing the religious-social situation of the society he lived in. He said that this resembled Protestantism. In addition to this, he also dealt theoretically with the criticism of religion and...

A Comparative Study of Mulla Sadra and Henry Corbin: Their Views concerning the Impact of Revealed Teachings on Human Being

In the Islamic tradition, Mulla Sadra is foremost among the philosophers who have dealt with the issue of prophecy from all three theological, philosophical, and mystical perspectives. Among Western scholars of religion, Henry Corbin is the most prominent commentator of prophetic wisdom, who has provided a mystical reading of the problem of prophecy drawing on the ideas of Muslim philosophers. ...

Leibniz and Kant on Miracles: Rationalism, Religion, and the Laws

Both Leibniz and Kant were heirs of such a tradition. But both were also explanatory rationalists about the empirical world: more committed than your average philosopher to its thoroughgoing intelligibility. (Leibniz was also an explanatory rationalist about the nonempirical, fundamental world; on that issue, given his commitments to freedom and noumenal ignorance, Kant famously demurred.) Thes...