Morality and Revelation in Islamic Thought and Beyond A New Problem of Evil

If God commanded you to do something contrary to your moral conscience, how would you respond? Many believers of different faiths face a similar challenge today. While they take scripture to be the word of God, they find scriptural passages that seem incompatible with their modern moral sensibilities. In Morality and Revelation in Islamic Thought and Beyond, philosopher Amir Saemi identifies this as the problem of divinely prescribed evil.

Saemi unpacks two approaches to answering this problem. In the first part of the book, Saemi demonstrates how Islamic thinkers of various historical traditions (including the Ash'arites, the Mu'tazilites, and the Greek influenced Philosophers, falasifa) adhered to a scripture-first view. By appealing to hidden moral facts known only to God or the prophet, a scripture-first approach views moral reasoning, at least when it conflicts with Scripture, with skepticism. An ethics-first view, however, places our independent moral judgments before scripture. In the second part of the book, Saemi offers two ethics-first solutions, with some roots in the Islamic tradition, to the problem of divinely prescribed evil. Each solution argues that our own moral reasoning is reliable in the face of skeptical arguments presented by Scripture-first views and shows how a theist can maintain their belief in scripture's divinity while relying on their own moral judgments. By studying the conflict between morality and revelation in Islamic thought, Saemi offers unapologetic solutions not only for progressive Muslims but for all theists who take their moral judgments seriously.

Amir Saemi has earned a PhD in philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara in June 2013. His research is primarily on moral philosophy, philosophy of religion and Islamic philosophy. Saemi's work has appeared in journals including Ethics, Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, and Canadian Journal of Philosophy. Saemi also holds another PhD degree in electronics and telecommunications from the University of Limoges, Xlim CNRS 6172 (France). He has also published in Electrical Engineering journals such as IEEE transactions on Wireless Communications and IEEE transaction on Vehicular Technology, among others.

PROLOGUE

DEFINING A NEW PROBLEM OF EVIL
Summary of the Chapter
I. Two Stories
II. Morally Controversial Scriptural Passages
III. Seemingly Prescribed Evil
IV. The New Problem of Evil and the Structure of the Book
V. Historical Background

PART I: SCRIPTURE-FIRST

CHATER 1
THE CONSEQUENTIALISM OF THE LATE ASH'ARITES
Summary of the Chapter
I. Divine Command Theory of the Early Ash'arites
II. The Consequentialism of al-Ghazali
III. The Moral Epistemology of al-Ghazali
IV. The Argument for Strict Adherence to Scripture
V. Taqlid and the Rule of Figurative Interpretation

CHAPTER 2
THE DEONTOLGICAL ETHICS OF THE MU'TAZILITES
Summary of the Chapter
I. The Ash'arites and the Problem of Evil
II. The Metaethics of the Mu'tazilites
III. The Normative Theory of 'Abd al-Jabbar
IV. The Moral Epistemology of 'Abd al-Jabbar
V. Natural Evil, Prescribed Evil, and Skeptical Theism

CHAPTER 3
THE VIRTUE ETHICS OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHERS
Summary of the Chapter
I. The Project of the Reconciliation of Reason and Religion
II. Al-Farabi's View on Epistemology and Religion
III. Averroes's View on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy
IV. The Virtue Ethics of al-Farabi

PART II: ETHICS-FIRST

CHAPTER 4
THE IMPERMISSIBILITY OF MORAL DEFERENCE
Summary of the Chapter
I. Moral Deference in Contemporary Philosophy
I. Al-Razi's Ethical Theory
II. Al-Razi on Moral Deference
III. Moses and Impermissibility of Pure Moral Deference
IV. A Solution to the Problem of Prescribed Evil

CHAPTER 5
THE RELIABILITY OF OUR MORAL JUDGMENTS
Summary of the Chapter
I. The Debate on Objective and Subjective Ought
II. Scripture, Ignorance and Uncertainty
III. Ignorance Revisited
IV. Kantian Arguments for the Accessibility Constraint
V. Moral Knowledge Optimism and The Mu'tazilites
VI. The Case of Abraham

CHAPTER 6
THE HERMENEUTICS OF SCRIPTURE
Summary of the Chapter
I. Ethics-first Solutions to the Problem of Prescribed Evil
II. Lessons from a Philosophical Tale
III. The Nature of Law
IV. Legal Interpretation Defended
V. The Moral Functions of Scripture