Does the Renaissance have roots in Islamic philosophy?

As a scholar of Persian philosophies, that's actually pretty sad that Mr Adamson in this video doesn't even mention the importance of Zoroastrianism, and all the fundamental ideas within it and their influence and impact on Suhrawardi as well as many other philosophers before and after him. In fact, the very core teachings and philosophy of Zoroaster is based upon Angra Mainyu the Force or God of darkness, and Ahura Mazda the supreme God of light. Far from being a dualist, Suhrawardi utilised such ancient Persian ideas, and actually directly mentions the ancient Persian sages (Persian Maguses) that heavily influenced later philosophers such as Plotinus, Plato and even Pythagoras.

Suhrawardi actually is well known as the 'reviver of the (so-called) Persian paganism" from the point of view of many stricted Islamic scholars of his time, hence his famous execution, and martyrdom. Hikmat al Ishraq (حکمت الآشراق) actually means "wisdom of the East or wisdom of the mystical East". There are fundamental differences between Suhrawardi' core ideas with Aristotle, Avicenna, and most other philosophers before and after him. Again, he actually mentions in the first chapter of his magnum opus that his Hikmat Al Ishraq is from both his mystical experiences and insights, as well as the philosophies to back them up intellectually. Sadly your guest doesn't at all mention the most important idea of Suhrawardi, which is his approach and in a way attempt to revive the ancient Persian mystical traditions and schools of philosophy, which is directly related to the notion of light and illumination (which again is reflected in Zoroastrianism as the religion of light). His core idea of Light of the Lights (نور الانوار) is taken directly from the ancient Persian idea of Vohu Manah (modern Persian 'Bahman"), which is a Zoroastrian Amshaspand (one of the main archetypical cosmic force/archangel) that in most interpretations can be equated to the idea of Logos.

This is a broad topic indeed, but I assume Mr Adamson isn't really familiar enough with the Persian language to be able to study the first hand materials, hence his ignorance and very incomplete picture he is trying to portrait in this video. I'm just leaving this comment for the future readers, but I'm open to provide reliable links and more information if people are interested to know more.

I would like to know to what degree figures of the "Islamic Golden Age" could more accurately be referred to as Persian.

Thank you, Natalia! Beauifulll!

Sorry but this guy is just missing everything important about this topic. It wasn’t because of cultural reform that Europe progressed while others stayed behind. It was the paper mill and then the printing press and exponentially accelerated the advancement and exchange of ideas that rapidly transformed the western culture, including the foundations of philosophical and religious belief. The Islamic world banned the printing press, with the penalty of death, as an unholy device. If not for that one catastrophically poor decision, the world would have progressed in unison.

It’s ridiculous that Adamson says, “I don't think its that sensible
to spend a lot of effort trying to explain why things don't happen.” Seriously?! Isn’t that rather an important question? And is technology and access to information not a pretty profound reason why Europe went on to dominate globally for centuries?

I’m sure he’s a smart guy but what a closed minded discussion!

Scientific revolution did not take place in Islamic World because an oppression took place intensely to preserve power. Like Ottoman empire. Preserving that power made them even kill their family members. For the sake of that power protection there were much fear and little room for science. Science took less and less place in the coming generations of Ottoman empire which was biggest Muslim Empire in the most recent century. Persian were good at science, at begining Ottoman Empire was also good at science but religious views began to be the whole controller to pretend as a Godly figure and convince people and use their naivness. Religion without consciousness preapered their end.. That simple..

Neo Platonic which also influenced Christianity and Kabbalah.

1:08:20 The body is a barrier to light because it is a distraction from what is true because it's misunderstood as having being rather than the truth of it being an appearance in being, in the light of awareness. The body is the veil or I think one of the gospels refers to a curtain being torn away in the temple when Jesus, the body, dies on the cross. The death is the realization that the body has never been alive but only "exists" in the mind or imagination of it's creator, in the image of God. Jesus said the Father and I are one. Yahweh means to be. Christ is our being. We can check our being from time to time and see for ourselves that it never changes and surmise that this is also true from person to person which is the reason for the golden rule. The Bible says Faith without reason is faith in vain which alludes to the fact, in my opinion, that we must realize our being directly as an experience in our awareness by letting go of all worldly concerns like when Jacob sent his across the river before wrestling with the angel in the land of Pineal which was the cause of his revelation that his being is the life of his body, the light and the life of the world which shines in the hearts of all men though most know it not and he indicated this by condessing I am Jacob. He was then given the new name Israel which means one who contends with God, thats what Israel always means in the Bible. Jerusalem means peace. New Jerusalem means New Peace which as the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to St John informs us is accomplished by repenting or changing our attitude by realizing our idiotic ideas which means believing in the world as a cause rather than the truth that it's an effect conceived in the mind of it's creator and given form as an idea, which is why it is idiotic to believe ideas are causes.
All the major religions including science have this fundamental truth in their scriptures even though most know it not. I knew it not also but now it seems so obvious. I didn't have much idea what the scriptures were talking about before I accidentally became aware of my being. Once we do that then we know the truth even though it may still be far from being integrated as a continuous knowing during our activities. It's not the whole truth, just the truth of our being. 🙏⚕️🙏

What is the context of this video? How is it related to the purpose of the channel? It seemed Adamson was saying there wasn't a great deal of monistic idealism metaphysics in Islamic philosophy.

Why call it islamic philosophy and compare it to a European one? Islam as it is in the texts it claims devine has nothing to do with th philosophies that emerged at its time, and it would be an insult to all philosophers and scientists of the time to do so. I would call it at least – as you refer to European philosophy – a middle eastern philosophy. Even better? "Arabic philosophy" as many scholars like to refer to it, since some of these "islamic philosophies" were produced by non Muslims !

He doesn’t seem to be aware of BK’s analytic idealism and she didn’t define it for him at 38 min in.

Dies Prof. Peter Adamson ever address East Asian philosophy in his Philosophy Without Any Gaps series?

And as an aside…Were any Islamic thinkers influenced by the Pre-Socratics?

Thing is if you imagine the image
Words and numbers are just symbols the devine sparc isoppsididitagain baby
CGJ
CGJP

The House of Kastrup is on 🔥🔥🔥

Thank you, this was excellent.
Having a hard time trusting any academics/experts these days, but this was interesting and enjoyable…

Apropos “Dark Ages/Renaissance” If I may offer a guest suggestion, Steve Patterson…