Research ArticleOpen AccessGoogle Scholar indexed
Ibn ‘Arabi and Spinoza on God and the World
Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
- 1 Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Open Journal of Philosophy·Volume 07 (2017)·Pages 409–421·Published 15 September 2017·DOI10.4236/ojpp.2017.74021
Copy link · social · email
Abstract
This paper is a comparative analysis of Ibn ‘Arabi’s and Spinoza’s interpretation of God’s existence and its relation with the world. The focus will be on the ontology of these two thinkers from different intellectual traditions, elucidating their tripartite system in order to find out whether the reality of the world in its relationship to God is denied or affirmed. To vindicate the similarities between the ontological views of Ibn ‘Arabi and Spinoza this paper argues in light of God’s simplicity and causality that the existence of the world can be understood by denying and affirming its identity with God.
KeywordsExistenceSubstanceSimplicityCausalityUnityDifferenceTheophanyTranscendence and Immanence
- Aristotle (1995). Metaphysics. In: J. Barnes (Ed.), Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol. 1. Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- Chittick, W. C. (1989). Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination: The Sufi Path to Knowledge. New York: State University of the New York Press.
- Corbin, H. (1981). Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi. Translated from the French by Ralph Manheim, Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400853670
- Curley, E. M. (1969). Spinoza’s Metaphysics: An Essay in Interpretation. Massachusetts and Cambridge: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674330450
- Hegel, W. F. (1995). Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Vol. 3. Translated by E. S. Haldane and Frances H. Simon, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
- Ibn ‘Arabi (1980). The Bezels of Wisdom. Translation and Introduction by R. W. J. Austin, New Jersey: Paulist Press.
- Ibn ‘Arabi (2005). The Meccan Revelations, Vol. 1. Translated by William C. Chittick and James W. Morris, Edited by Michel Chodkiewicz, New York: PIR Press.
- Knysh, A. D. (1999). Ibn ‘Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition. New York: State University of New York Press.
- Netton, I. R. (1980). Allah Transcendent. Surrey: Curzon Press.
- Pollock, F. (2005). Spinoza: His Life and Philosophy. London: Elibron Classics Series.
- Russell, B. (2000). History of Western Philosophy. London: Routledge.
- Spinoza, B. (1970). Ethics. Translated by Andrew Boyle, Introduction by T. S. Gregory. London and New York: Everyman’s Library.
- Spinoza, B. (1985). Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well-Being. In: Collected Works of Spinoza, Vol. 1, Edited and Translated by Edwin Curley, Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- Wolfson, H. A. (1962). The Philosophy of Spinoza, Vol. 1. Massachusetts, and London: Harvard University Press.