Research

This page will be regularly updated with publications, presentations, and volumes produced by the project leaders and affiliates.

Presentations

Billy Dunaway and Jon McGinnis, "God, Language, and Skepticism: The Alston-Wolterstorff Debate through the Eyes of Medieval Islam".

• February 2019, APA Central Division Meeting, Denver, CO. Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy.

Michael Tofte, comments on Jay Carlson's "The Epistemology of Political Disagreement: Legitimacy and Compromise"

• November 2019, 14th Gateway Graduate Conference, UMSL.​

Billy Dunaway, "Testimony and Interpretation."

• January 2020, Saint Louis University.

Jon McGinnis, "Keep It Simple: Plantinga and al-Ghazālī on Divine Simplicity".

• February 2020 APA Central Division Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Rosabel Ansari, "Tashkik and Sophistry in Farabi's Philosophy of Language".

• February 2020 APA Central Division Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Billy Dunaway, "Necessary Existent Theology".

• July 2020, UMSL works-in-progress group.

Hashem Movarid, "The Muʿtazila’s Arguments Against Divine Command Theory".

• October 2020, USML works-in-progress group.

Billy Dunaway, "The Epistemology of Theological Predication".

• October 2020, The Christian West And Islamic East Lecture Series 2020-21.

Katherine Sweet, "Social Practices of Research Groups"

• January 7, 2021, Colloquium, American Philosophical Association Eastern Division

Billy Dunaway, "Testimony and Interpretation".

• February 2021, The Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Michael Tofte, "Lonely being-revealed-before-God': Arendt's Reflections on Christianity's Loneliness"

• February 2021, Northeast Philosophy of Religion Colloquium, Fordham/Boston College.

Katherine Sweet, "Shared Agency and Collaboration"

• February 27, 2021, Symposium, American Philosophical Association Central Division.   

Nicholas Oschman, "“Al-Fārābī and Averroes on the Three Modes of Public Discourse”.

• March 2021, UMSL works-in-progress group.

Hashem Movarid, “Avicenna on Common Natures”,

• March 2021, Aquinas and "the Arabs" International Working Group's Graduate Student Workshop.

Michael Tofte, comments, Sanjana Rajagopal's “Derridean Hospitality in Dark Times"

• March 13, 2021, 15th Gateway Graduate Conference, UMSL. 

Hashem Movarid, "God and Morality".

• April 2021, Great Lakes Philosophy Conference, Siena Heights University.

Billy Dunaway, "Necessary Existent Theology". 

• May 2021, Aquinas and "the Arabs" International Working Group (AAIWG) International Meeting.

Jon McGinnis, comments on "New Readings of Avicenna".

• May 2021, Aquinas and "the Arabs" International Working Group (AAIWG) International Meeting.

Hashem Movarid, “Avicenna and Contemporary Challenges to Divine Simplicity”.

• May 2021, International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Michael Tofte, “Avicenna and the Extended Mind: Framing Avicenna’s Account of the Theoretical Intellect Alongside Contemporary Cognitive Science”

• May 2021, International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Hashem Movarid, "The Muʿtazila’s Arguments Against Divine Command Theory".

• May 2021, 71st Annual Meeting of the New Mexico-Texas Philosophical Society.

Nicholas Oschman, "Taqlīd and the Fārābīan Tradition”

• Forthcoming, Aquinas and the 'Arabs' International Working Group Spring/Summer 2021 International Meeting

Papers

Billy Dunaway and Jon McGinnis. "Knowledge and Theological Predication: Lesson from the Medieval Islamic Tradition" in Res Philosophica. Vol. 98, Issue 2, April 2021. ​

Rosabel Ansari, Billy Dunaway, and Jon McGinnis, "Necessary Existent Theology". Draft here.

Matthew Benton and Billy Dunaway, "Testimony and Interpretation". Draft here.

Billy Dunaway, "The Epistemology of Divine Predication". Draft here.

Jon McGinnis, "Keep It Simple: Plantinga and al-Ghazālī on Divine Simplicity". Draft here.

Ansari, R & McGinnis, J. "The Ambiguity of Being: The Univocity of ‘Existence’ and the Theory of Tashkīk in Rāzī and Ṭūsī’s commentaries on Avicenna’s Pointers and Reminders". Draft here.

McGinnis, J. "Ibn Sīnā's Ethics" forthcoming in (ed.) Mustafa Shah, Oxford Handbook of Islamic Ethics.  

McGinnis, J., Book Review: Daniel D. De Haan, Necessary Existence and the Doctrine of Being in Avicenna's Metaphysics of the Healing, forthcoming in The Journal of the History of Philosophy.

Acar A. & McGinnis, J, "Islamic Philosophy of Religion" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, forthcoming August, 2021.

McGinnis, J. A Beginner's Guide to A Beginner’s Guide to Classical Arabic Philosophy. Under Contract w/ Hackett (Tentative completion date August 2022).

​Billy Dunaway, "The Metaphysical Conception of Realism." Draft here.

Volumes and
Journal Issues

Billy Dunaway and Jon McGinnis (editors). "Special Issue: Islamic Philosophy and Contemporary Philosophy of Religion" of Res Philosophica. Vol. 98, Issue 2, April 2021. 
​

• T. Ryan Byerly, "Recovering a Role for Moral Character and Ascetic Practice in Religious Epistemology".​

• Reza Hadisi, "Creative Imagining as Practical Knowing: An Akbariyya Account".

• Joshua Lee Harris, "Ontological Pluralism and Divine Naming: Insights from Avicenna".

• Laura Hassan, "In Pursuit of the World's Creator: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on the Origins of the Universe in al-Maalib al-'Aliya".

• Kirk Lougheed, "Epistemic Paternalism, Open Group Inquiry, and Religious Knowledge".

• Amir Saemi, "Revelation, Moral Skepticism, and the Mu'tazilites".

• Julie Loveland Swanstrom, "Illumination of the Heart: Doubt, Certainty, and Knowledge Acquisition in al-Ghazali and Augustine". 

• Seyma Yacizi, "Can al-Ghazali's Conception of Modality Propose a Solution to Rowe's Argument against Divine Freedom?".

• Billy Dunaway and Jon McGinnis, "Knowledge and Theological Predication: Lessons from the Medieval Islamic Tradition".

Other project-sponsored outputs

Jamie Turner, "Ibn Taymiyya on Theistic Signs and Knowledge of God", in Religious Studies (FirstView). Sponsored by 2020 Summer Research Award.

Hashem Movarid, “The Muʿtazila’s Arguments Against Divine Command Theory”, in Religious Studies (FirstView.) 2020-21 Visiting PhD Student.

Mohammed Saleh Zarepour, Necessary Existence and Monotheism: An Avicennian Account of the Islamic Conception of Divine Unity, in press with Cambridge University Press. Partially sponsored by a 2020 Summer Research Award.

Nicholas Oschman, “Al-Fārābī and Averroes on the Three Modes of Public Discourse”. Templeton postdoc at UMSL 2020-2021.

Katherine Sweet, "Belief, Resistance, and Grace: Stump on Divine Hiddenness", forthcoming in the European Journal for Philosophy of Religion. Draft here. 2020-2021 Visiting PhD Student.

Katherine Sweet, "Collaboration as a Distinctive Kind of Social Activity". Currently revise and resubmit. 2020-2021 Visiting PhD Student.

Michael Tofte, Organizer & Moderator of UMSL Philosopher Forum's Philosophy Off the Reels 2020 events, project graduate assistant.

• October 2020, Helen De Cruz (SLU) on Avatar: The Last Airbender, ​Link.
• November 2020, Jill Delston (UMSL) on The Good Place, ​Link.

Michael Tofte, Organizer & Moderator of the 15th Gateway Gradute Conference, UMSL via Zoom, March 12-13, 2021, project graduate assistant.

• Keynote: Lisa Bortolotti (Birmingham), "Are Conspirary Theories Irrational?" Link. 

Nicholas Oschman, Premodern Philosophy in the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin Traditions. Essays in Honor of Richard C. Taylor. Co-edited with Luis Xavier López-Farjeat and Katja Krause, Forthcoming.

Nicholas Oschman, Festschrift in Honor of Thérèse-Anne Druart. Co-edited with Richard C. Taylor and Timothy B. Noone.

Background image: a Latin translation of Averroes's Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. Brasenose College Library Registrum A GOV 3 A1/1.