From Heathen to Sub-Human: A Genealogy of the Influence of the Decline of Religion on the Rise of Modern Racism

This essay traces a genealogy of the modern concept of race, and modern racism, in relationship to the intellectual shifts that led to the secularization of knowledge during the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Through an analysis of the evolution of the central concept of The Great Chain of Being from the Classical through Medieval and Early Modern periods, I argue that the decline of religion in the West was a necessary condition for the rise of modern conceptions of race and racism

Inception and Ibn \u27Arabi

Many philosophers, playwrights, artists, sages, and scholars throughout the ages have entertained and developed the concept of life being a but a dream. Few works, however, have explored this topic with as much depth and subtlety as the 13thC Andalusian Muslim mystic, Ibn \u27Arabi. Similarly, few works of art explore this theme as thoroughly and engagingly as Chistopher Nolan\u27s 2010 film Inception. This paper presents the writings of Ibn \u27Arabi and Nolan\u27s film as a pair of mirrors, in which one can contemplate the other. As such, the present work is equally a commentary on the film based on Ibn \u27Arabi\u27s philosophy, and a commentary on Ibn \u27Arabi\u27s work based on the film. The paper explores several points of philosophical significance shared by the film and the work of the Sufi sage, and their relevance to contemporary conversations in philosophy, religion, and art

Sufism and Ifa: Ways of Knowing in Two West African Intellectual Traditions

This dissertation examines and compares the epistemologies of two of the most popular West African intellectual traditions: Tijani Sufism and Ifa. Employing theories native to the traditions themselves and contemporary oral and textual sources, I examine how these traditions answer the questions: What is knowledge? How is it acquired? And How is it verified? Or more simply, “What do you know?,” “How did you come to know it?,” and “How do you know that you know?” After analyzing each tradition separately, and on its own terms, I compare them to each other and to certain contemporary, Western theories. Despite having relatively limited historical contact, I conclude that the epistemologies of both traditions are based on forms of self-knowledge in which the knowing subject and known object are one. As a result, ritual practices that transform the knowing subject are key to cultivating these modes of knowledge. Therefore I argue that like the philosophical traditions of Greek antiquity, the intellectual or philosophical dimensions of Tijani Sufism and Ifa must be understood and should be studied as a part of a larger project of ritual self-transformation designed to cultivate an ideal mode of being, or way of life, which is also an ideal mode of knowing. I further assert that both traditions offer distinct and compelling perspectives on, and approaches to, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, psychology, and ritual practice, which I suggest and begin to develop through comparison.African and African American Studie

Praising the Prophet in Poetry: A Note on Prophetic Madīḥ in Islamic Africa

No Abstract

The Language of Implicit Preferences

Are attitudes affected by the language in which they are expressed? In particular, do individual preferences shift to accord with the cultural values embedded in a given language? To examine these questions, two experiments tested bilingual participants, administering the same test of implicit attitudes in two languages. In both studies, participants manifested attitudes that favored social categories associated with the test language, e.g. more pro-Moroccan attitudes when tested in Arabic as compared with French (Study 1) and more pro-Spanish attitudes when tested in Spanish as compared with English (Study 2). The effects of language on elicited preference were large (mean d>.7), providing evidence that preferences are not merely transmitted through language but also shaped by it.Psycholog