Self-Awareness in Islamic Philosophy

Jari Kaukua is Academy of Finland Research Fellow in the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä. He is the author of several articles in journals including Vivarium and History and Theory. This is his first book.

• Introduction; 1. Preliminary observations: self-cognition and Avicennian psychology; 2. Avicenna and the phenomenon of self-awareness: the experiential basis of the flying man; 3. Self-awareness as existence: Avicenna on the individuality of an incorporeal substance; 4. In the first person: Avicenna's concept of self-awareness reconstructed; 5. Self-awareness without substance: from Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī to Suhrawardī; 6. Self-awareness, presence, appearance: the ishrāqī context; 7. Mullā Sadrā on self-awareness; 8. The self reconsidered: Sadrian revisions to the Avicennian concept; Conclusion: who is the I?; Appendix: Arabic terminology related to self-awareness; Bibliography; Index.

'Jari Kaukua's Self-Awareness in Islamic Philosophy covers much uncharted territory, probing the problem of self-awareness as conceived by Avicenna and as received and reformulated by his illustrious successors, chief among them Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 1191) and Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1640). Although the premodern, non-European occupation with the self has already been aptly demonstrated by Richard Sorabji, Kaukua seeks to fill in the gaps with a more sustained account of Islamic models of self-awareness. He approaches this topic with impressive historical range, sensitivity to the many technical nuances inherent in the subject matter, sound philological skills, and forensic philosophical precision … a major feat and a serious scholarly accomplishment.' Mohammed Rustom, Journal of the American Oriental Society