Dehellenization vs. Islamization of Philosophy

A Historiographical Debate in the Study of Islamic Philosophy

Abstract

This research critically analyzes the historiographical debate surrounding the transmission of Greek philosophy to the Islamic world, polarized into two main paradigms: dehellenization and Islamization. The background of this research lies in the unresolved epistemological tension within contemporary academic discourse concerning the nature of the Islamization of philosophy, as well as the legitimacy of philosophy in the Islamic intellectual tradition. The research question posed is: how to comprehensively understand the process of the Islamization of philosophy, moving beyond the simplistic dichotomy between purification and hybridization? This research aims to offer a new, more holistic perspective on the dialectic between Islamic philosophy and Greek heritage, focusing the analysis on concrete intellectual practices. This research uses a qualitative-interpretive approach with intellectual history methods, literature, and integrates three theories, namely: the transmission of knowledge from Dimitri Gutas, the theory of cultural hybridity from Homi K. Bhabha, and the philosophical hermeneutics from Hans-Georg Gadamer. Research findings indicate that the Islamization of philosophy is a multidimensional phenomenon encompassing aspects of creative selection, transformative adaptation, and original synthesis. This process involves interconnected intellectual operations, namely filtering, embedding, and generating. Furthermore, this research reveals the distinctive methodology of Muslim philosophers, which includes tafsiriyyah hermeneutics and integrative epistemology with its various models. The theoretical contribution of this research is a new model for understanding the transmission of knowledge across cultures and a historical foundation for contemporary Islamic-Western philosophical dialogue.

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