Ibn ʿArabi and Modern Thought
Overview
Ibn ʿArabi and Modern Thought deals with some of the findings of modern philosophy, social science and psychology, in an open discourse between the ancient and the modern, the traditional and the scientific, the industrial and the personal. It is an invitation to reconsider some of the central and defining ideas of modernity in the light of Ibn ʿArabi's writings on the Unity of Existence.
In these global times it is a curious and pertinent fact that the life and writings of Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi, which constitute one of the most penetrating and extraordinary metaphysical and spiritual teachings the world has ever known, still remain relatively unknown and undiscussed in the Western theoretical architecture of the twenty-first century.
What is perhaps unexpected is not only the modern ring of much of his thought, but also its ability to reconceptualise modernity's own self-descriptions and understandings, and to bring out hitherto unnoticed features of its landscape.
Ibn ʿArabi's remarks on causality, time, contingency, necessity, epistemology, ontology, ethics and aesthetics alone would entice even the most wary of modernity's intellectual authorities.
This ground-breaking book includes extensive notes, bibliography, and name and subject indexes.
Ibn ʿArabi and Modern Thought will appeal to academics and students in the fields of psychology, sociology, and philosophy, as well as readers with an academic and/or personal interest in Ibn ʿArabi.
Endorsements
This is a remarkably well informed and wide-ranging study of Ibn ‘Arabi, whose works will be known to some readers. He was one of the greatest Islamic mystical teachers whose work can speak to us across history.
With his academic background in psychology, Peter Coates initiates a dialogue between the two eras of the 13th and 21st centuries, examining epistemology and metaphysics, the use of reason, the social contexts and finally reflections on the self. Teachers of this calibre are never out of date – they speak across the centuries, and Peter Coates has done a skilful job of communicating the power of Ibn ‘Arabi’s vision.