Blogging Theology Philosophy Special with Shaykh Hasan Spiker (2022-12-07) ​

Description ​

More about Hasan Spiker: https://zaytuna.edu/hasan-spiker

You Can Support My Work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Bloggingtheology

My Paypal Link: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bloggingtheology?locale.x=en_GB

Summary of Blogging Theology Philosophy Special with Shaykh Hasan Spiker ​

This summary is AI generated - there may be inaccuracies. *

00:00:00 - 01:00:00 ​

Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the philosophical concept of the 'revolution,' how it applies to epistemology, and how it affects everything after him. He argues that traditional theology is based on subjective experiences which are not capable of being known in principle, and that metaphysics is not based on objective truths. He concludes by saying that traditional theology is consigned to the Dustbin because humans are not equipped to understand transcendent realities.

**00:00:00 ** Hassan Spiker discusses the impasse of modern thought and how Kant's legacy has led to a separation of being and knowing. He discusses his book, Things as They Are, which seeks to reintroduce objective truth into Islamic philosophy.

• **00:05:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the idea of arbitrariness in voluntarism and how it manifests in gender fluidity theory. He argues that it is important to depict the state of mind of those engaging in these ideologies in order to have a conversation about them.
• **00:10:00
• Discusses how the idea of "human nature" has changed over the centuries, from being fixed to being fluid. Emmanuel Kant is largely responsible for this change, as he was the first philosopher to argue that humans are not limited by their "human nature." This has had a ripple effect, as the average person in the West now believes in human fluidity and "my truth," "goodness," and "beauty" without any objective standards.
• **00:15:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the legacy of the 1724 French philosopher Emmanuel Kant, who is considered one of the greatest thinkers in modern times. He discusses the Cartesian split, which is the idea that the world is composed of two fundamentally different substances: mind and matter.
• **00:20:00 ** Descartes distinguished between the physical world as it is seen by mathematics and the world as it is experienced subjectively. He could not bridge the two and this led to the split between metaphysics and physics.
• **00:25:00 ** In the traditional Scholastic understanding of the high Middle Ages, there is a continuity between nature and our capacity to know it because nature in itself is imbued with intrinsic intelligibility. For Plato, the reason that the world that we know in itself corresponds to our mental representations is because there is a special agent intellect which underlies both. Kant was the real origin of the coherent theory of truth, which is the most fundamental competitive to the correspondence theory.
• **00:30:00 ** The traditional correspondence theory in Islamic thought is that the truth of a proposition corresponds to its objective reality. However, this theory faces the problem of non-empirical propositions. In order to account for these propositions, philosophers throughout the history of philosophy have relied on various conceptions of objects which do not correspond to any empirical reality. In this lecture, Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses one such conception, instrumental reality. Instrumental reality is outside the mind and all particular fundamental reality is all particular. He also discusses the outside world and how every existent object is in Arabic.
• **00:35:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the problem of how certain propositions can be known to be true even though they do not have empirical reference. He argues that these propositions are actually correspondence to reality, and that, therefore, they are true despite not having empirical reference.
• **00:40:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the problems of abstract propositions and the principle of non-contradiction. He notes that philosophy has progressed since the mid-20th century, when it was realized that all meaningful statements must be either analytic or empirically verified. He goes on to say that the verification principle has been identified as a contradiction, and that real philosophical progress has been made when philosophers realized that there is no solution to the impasse.
• **00:45:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the philosophical concept of the 'revolution,' how it applies to epistemology, and how it affects everything after him.
• **00:50:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses how traditional theology is based on subjective experiences which are not capable of being known in principle. He then argues that metaphysics is not based on objective truths and is instead based on natural senses. Shaykh Hasan Spiker concludes by saying that traditional theology is consigned to the Dustbin because humans are not equipped to understand transcendent realities.
• **00:55:00
• Discusses the idea of a hierarchy of sciences, with physics at the top and other sciences having some empirical basis, but containing subjective elements. It goes on to discuss the idea of knowledge structures, and how the traditional understanding that theology is the queen of the sciences has been replaced by the current understanding that physics is the queen of the sciences.

01:00:00 - 01:55:00 ​

discusses the relationship between theology and philosophy, and how these two fields of study have interacted throughout history. Shaykh Hasan Spiker argues that the current state of affairs, in which theology is seen as subordinate to philosophy, is due to the influence of Western thought. He argues that this state of affairs is dangerous, as it is not supported by Islam.

**01:00:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the idea of a "Stark distinction" between humanities and sciences, and how this distinction is outdated due to advances in science. He goes on to say that the Proviso of course still applies, and that there are many scientists who are open to the idea that the observer has an impact on the physical world.

• **01:05:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the relationship between theology and philosophy, highlighting the difference between non-empirical discourse and subjective reality. He goes on to argue that voluntarist ontologies are satanic in their inversion of traditional theology.
• **01:10:00
• Discusses the philosophical problem of modernism, which is the idea that there is no intrinsic order or hierarchy in the world. Modernism is a philosophical problem because it undermines the idea of intrinsic order and hierarchy in the world. This leads to a loss of intrinsic meaning and value in life.

discusses the idea of hierarchy and freedom, and how these are fundamental principles of the modern individual. Hierarchy and freedom are seen as the gifts of modernity, which have freed people from false strictures and hierarchies. also discusses the idea of gender and the family, and how these constructs are no longer seen as intrinsic to human nature. This is due to the idea of autonomy, which is the principle of modernity.

• **01:15:00
• Discusses how European thinkers, especially during the Protestant Reformation, revolted against a pre-existing church hierarchy and ended up developing a conception of freedom that is based on the individual. This individualist view of freedom is then passed on to the Muslim world, where it is becoming increasingly dangerous because it is not supported by Islam.
• **01:20:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the theological origins of the perplexing doctrines of the Trinity, Incarnation, and the Holy Mysteries, which contributed to the distinctive attitudes to Faith and reason in the Middle Ages. He argues that these doctrines ultimately cemented the idea of the complete otherness of faith and reason, which is unrecognizable outside of Christendom.
• **01:25:00
• Discusses the development of theology in the Western world, focusing on the work of three prominent thinkers: Anselm of Canterbury, Richard of Saint Victor, and William of Volterra. Anselm's approach, which is based on reason and scripture, led to the development of the ontological argument for the existence of a God-man. This argument, first put forward by Augustine of Hippo, is that because man has the ability to reason, it is necessary that a God-man exists in order for man to be able to make amends for his sins. This premise is based on the idea that man owes a debt of honor to God. also discusses the approach of Aquinas, who developed a more fragile form of harmony between reason and faith.
• **01:30:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses how early Christian theologians believed that it was possible to find necessary reasons for the mysteries of Christianity, which relied on the principle of perfection. This idea was eventually co-opted by the scientific community and reduced to the hard sentence of science. However, knowledge in the Islamic tradition is based on first principles, which are metaphysical in nature.
• **01:35:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the distinction between theology and philosophy, noting that theology is concerned with knowledge that is distinct from faith. He discusses the medieval period and the development of theological reasoning. He argues that reason and revelation are separate, and that reason can only prove what faith teaches is not impossible.
• **01:40:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the fundamental opposition of the Holy Mysteries to the structures of logic and how this Singularity should not be posited except when the authority of holy scriptures compels. He also touches on the concept of radical freedom and how it applies to the individual.
• **01:45:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker discusses the intrinsic toxicity of Western philosophy and how it contributes to the collapse of civilizations. He also discusses the role of abstract entities in Islamic thought and how they correspond to intelligible reality.
• **01:50:00 ** The Shaykh discusses the various ways in which Tradition understands the relationship between objective reality and subjective experience. He points out that, in the Islamic tradition, this relationship is seen as unfolding through a series of degrees of being until it appears in our world. He also mentions that, in our tradition, subjective experience is never divorced from objective reality.
• **01:55:00 ** Shaykh Hasan Spiker explains the metaphysics of the possibility and the hierarchy of existence. He also points out the similarity between himself and a convert to Islam, and how this is all a mystery of God.