This is an intoduction of a developing paper. Comments welcome
A Prolegomenon to the Research on Islamic Doctrines
and the Mind-Body Problem
Yasser Pouresmail
Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy (ISCA)
pouresmail@isca.ac.ir
Abstract: In this paper I shall present an outline of the research on Islamic doctrines and the mind-body problem. To do this, I will first enumerate the Islamic doctrines which have implications for theories of the mind-body problem or are accountable in terms of some theory of the mind-body relation, such as different versions of dualism or materialism. In this paper, the Jeudo-Christian Doctrines will be mentioned by way of comparison. I will then give dualistic, materialistic or other accounts for each of these doctrines. If there is any literature about the doctrine, I will give an introductory formulation of it and if there is no literature, I will try to carve the possible theories which can explain the doctrine. In the introduction of this paper, I will make general remarks about religious dualism and materialism in both Christian and Islamic traditions and the religious motives behind them. Furthermore, I will discuss the presuppositions and the methodology of this research.
0. Introduction: Religious Dualism and Materialism
The Abrahamic religious worldview consists in a particular conception of the world and its nature, its relation with God or a Superior Being, and the nature of the human persons which seems to be the most fundamental of all. For in case of any change in our conception of the human person, we would come up with a different conception of God, prayers, prophecy, revelation, the afterlife and other matters of doctrine that constitute the overall religious worldview. There might be different conceptions of the human persons; one might take them to be part of the natural world, to be natural or material entities, or one might take them to have an otherworldly component or an immaterial part. With a materialist conception, people would have a quite different understanding of religious beliefs and a different approach to the religious life from the one they will have according to a dualistic conception of the human person.
Within Christianity the historically dominant view was mind-body dualism, by means of which many of its doctrines were explained. Apparently the view originates from Plotinus [reference] which has its roots in Platonic dualism of souls and bodies. However, Thomas Aquinas [reference] –inspired by Avicenna- formulated an Aristotelian hylomorphic version of dualism, which gives a more unified picture of the soul-body relation. Only recently materialistic accounts of Christian doctrines –and in particular the doctrine of resurrection- have been offered by philosophers such as Peter van Inwagen, Lynne Rudder Baker [other materialists with reference]. In the light of this movement which might be called "Christian materialism", more sophisticated versions of "Christian dualism" have been developed by philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga, Charles Taliaferro, Stuart Goetz, [others with reference]. The literature so far has been mostly focused on issues like resurrection, death or purgatory and little discussion was devoted to other relevant doctrines such as the variety of doctrines concerning God, prophecy and religious morality.
In the Islamic tradition, however, the history is much different. Though dualistic theories which emphasize the immateriality of the human persons entered the history of Islamic thought since the so-called "translation period" [date] when Greek texts of sciences and philosophy were translated into Arabic, the orthodox view largely held by Mutakalimin (Muslim theologians) and Foqaha (jurists or scholars of the Islamic Shari'ah) was that humans are not immaterial entities; some of these scholars believed that humans are nothing but their bodies and some of them believed that humans consists of a body and fine-grained material soul (e.g. a vaporous soul). Along with Muslim theologians, Muslim philosophers of the Peripatetic tradition like al-Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Averroes (Ibn Roshd) and others were committed to a dualistic view of the human nature with both Platonic and Aristotelian components; a view which was accused by some theologians and jurists of heresy; for example, Majlisi [date], a Famous Muslim theologian and muhaddith (a scholar of hadith: religious narrations of the prophet and Imams), stated that any person who believes in the immateriality of any creature except God (from humans to angels) is an apostate. By the time Mulla Sadra's [date] philosophical system was formulated, in which most of the Islamic doctrines were systematically explained, things started to change. Most scholars began to believe that an immaterial soul which has emerged or evolved from the body is the most compatible theory with the Islamic doctrines. In fact, Sadra's project was to make the triad of religious doctrines, mystical teachings, and philosophical principles (or revelations, mystical experiences, and philosophical reflections) compatible with one another. In contemporary Islamic thought, dualism or immaterialism is generally acknowledged as the orthodox view. Recently however an anti-philosophical or back-to-tradition movement in Iran has emerged which believes that the traditional Greek philosophy cannot be a source of religious beliefs; this movement, which has a considerable following, especially in the Islamic seminaries of Mashahd, is often called the school of Tafkik [that is, separation, so called because of its separation of religious belief from philosophical teaching]. Proponents of this approach strongly reject dualism and immaterialism; they believe that humans consist of a body and a soul, but the soul is a fine-grained (latif) material entity, and some of them, like Morvarid [date] and Tehrani [date], have interesting philosophical arguments for this view which might be called "materialistic dualism". They are focused on issues of bodily resurrection and prophecy as their religious motives for materialism. They believe that with dualism, we cannot at the end explain bodily resurrection; the physical descriptions of resurrection given by Qur'an. Also we cannot account for why prophets have been sent to guide the perplexed, since if we have an immaterial soul, they believe, we would necessarily know everything which is to our good, and we would not then need prophets to tell us good from bad.
In this paper, I try to give a list of all relevant Islamic doctrines, as comprehensive as possible (with references to Jeudo-Christian doctrines as well). Then under each of the doctrines, I shall partition the logical space of possible mind-body theoretical accounts of them. For example, under revelations or vahy I will try to give possible dualistic or materialistic accounts.
The paper is divided into 5 sections. Section 1 is mostly an exegetical account of scriptural texts in which materialism or dualism are said to be interpreted. Section 2 is about different materialistic or dualistic accounts of a variety of doctrines concerning the afterlife (the nature of death, purgatory, resurrection and the hereafter). Section 3 is about the implications of the doctrines regarding the nature of God, God-human relations, and the nature of man, for dualism or materialism. Finally, section 4 will be about the dualistic or materialistic accounts of prophecy-related doctrines.
0.1. Presuppositions and Methodology
The project of explaining certain religious doctrines and beliefs in terms of a specific mind-body theory rests upon the assumptions that (1) religious doctrines are factual; that is, they refer to facts of the matter; let us call this the “factuality assumption”, and (2) none of the materialistic, dualistic or other mind-body theories is a basic religious doctrine itself; rather they are different possible conceptions we can have about religious beliefs; let us call this the “neutrality assumption”. In what follows I will discuss the two assumptions and then I will talk about the methodology of the research.
A. Factuality Assumption. According to the factuality assumption, the religious doctrines such as resurrection and revelation refer to facts of the matter. The factuality assumption rests upon a literalist view about the language of the religion, according to which the expressions in a religious are taken as literal. For example, the religious proposition that “the dead will be resurrected in the Dooms Day” means that there will be a day when the dead will live again and will be punished or awarded for their deeds. An alternative conception would be a metaphorical view according to which the expressions in a religion are metaphorical. For example, the religious proposition that “the dead will be resurrected in the Dooms Day” should not be taken literal; rather it just means that our everyday actions must be done as though there will be a punishment or award even after the death. With the metaphorical view, the research program of “religious doctrines and the mind-body problem” cannot just begin, since it takes the religious doctrines literally. Thus for this project to kick off, we need to presuppose a factual assumption.
B. Neutrality Assumption. According to the neutrality assumption, none of the mind-body theories are part of the basic religious teachings. By “basic religious teachings” I mean the religious beliefs which are part of the religion with no controversy such that a person who does not believe in them cannot be counted as a religious person. The belief in God is a basic teaching of monotheistic religions; scholars of these religions have no controversy among themselves to ascribe the teaching to the religion and a person who does not believe in it cannot be counted as a member of these religious communities (we cannot have an atheist Muslim, for instance). The materiality or immateriality of the human soul is not a basic religious teaching, since there is controversy among the scholars of monotheistic religions about this. For example, within Islam mutakalimins make religious arguments for the materiality of the soul and Muslim philosophers argue for its immateriality.[1] If one counts any of the mind-body theories as a basic religious teaching, they will not be able to carry out the research program of religious doctrines and the mind-body problem. [1] It should be noted that some mukalimins accuse philosophers of heredity, but this does not mean that materialism is a basic religious doctrine; rather it is because of the implications they thought dualism would have for the soul’s being increate (not being created by God).
