Philosophy and Kalam

Philosophy and Kalam

Is ‘Islamic Philosophy’ a Unitive Synthesis? Re-evaluating the Nature of Islamic Philosophy From the ‘Christian Philosophy’ Controversy to Henry Corbin’s Interpretation

Document Type : Research Paper

Author
mohammad hossein vafaiyan
Assistant Professor, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Faculty of Management, Science and Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
10.22059/jitp.2026.413578.523726
Abstract
The question of what constitutes “Islamic” in “Islamic philosophy” has remained a persistent subject of inquiry in contemporary scholarship. Much of the existing literature, however, either juxtaposes competing positions without integrating them into a systematic framework or restricts itself to the examination of a single perspective. More importantly, insufficient attention has been paid to the modern provenance of this question within the debate over “Christian philosophy,” and to its place within a broader philosophical problem: whether philosophy can bear a religious qualification in an intrinsic, rather than merely extrinsic, sense. The central problem of this study is, therefore, to determine if—and in what sense—the term “Islamic” functions as an intrinsic qualification. How can “Islamic philosophy” constitute an essential, rather than merely additive, unity, such that the adjective “Islamic” is not an accidental attribute but enters into the very formation of the philosophical project? To address this, the article first returns to the modern source of the controversy—the debate over Christian philosophy—from which at least four major responses can be distinguished. This fourfold framework serves as a conceptual lens for examining the principal accounts of the Islamic character of philosophy. The inquiry culminates in the thesis that the Islamic identity of philosophy is grounded neither simply in the assimilation of religious propositions nor merely in the philosopher’s location within Islamic civilization. Rather, it becomes intrinsic to philosophy through the transformation of philosophical concepts and problems within the horizon opened by revelation. Henry Corbin’s interpretation of Islamic philosophy as “prophetic philosophy” is of particular significance in this respect. For Corbin, the qualification “Islamic” is neither an external designation nor the result of a deliberate project to Islamize a philosophy that is otherwise independently constituted. Instead, it designates a historical and existential process through which philosophy itself acquired a new configuration within the Islamic context.
Keywords
philosophy and religion
Islamic philosophy
Christian philosophy
Henry Corbin
Subjects
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Philosophy and Kalam
Volume 59, Issue 1
(Spring & Summer 2026)
September 2026
Pages 277-302