MWANAFALSAFA
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri
محمد عابد الجابري
- Lifespan
- 1935 – 2010
- Region & background
- Morocco — born in Figuig, died in Casablanca
- Intellectual tradition
- Contemporary Arab philosophy; epistemology and critique of heritage (turāth)
Key ideas
- Critique of the epistemic structures of Arab-Islamic heritage
- Three systems of knowledge: bayān, ʿirfān and burhān
- A critical, rationalist renewal inspired by Ibn Rushd
- Relating heritage (turāth) and modernity
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri was born in Figuig, Morocco, on 27 December 1935 and died in Casablanca on 3 May 2010. He studied and taught philosophy and Islamic thought at Mohammed V University in Rabat, where he wrote his doctoral thesis on Ibn Khaldūn, and was also active in Moroccan public and political life.
His major project, the four-volume Critique of Arab Reason (1984–2001), analyses how Arab-Islamic thought was formed and structured. In The Structure of Arab Reason he distinguishes three systems of knowledge — bayān (textual explication), ʿirfān (gnostic illumination) and burhān (demonstration) — and argues for reviving the rationalist legacy associated with Ibn Rushd. His work on heritage and modernity, democracy and human rights made him one of the most debated Arab intellectuals of his generation.
Notable works
- Takwīn al-ʿAql al-ʿArabī (The Formation of Arab Reason), 1984
- Bunyat al-ʿAql al-ʿArabī (The Structure of Arab Reason), 1986
- Al-ʿAql al-Siyāsī al-ʿArabī (Arab Political Reason), 1990
- Al-ʿAql al-Akhlāqī al-ʿArabī (Arab Ethical Reason), 2001
- Naḥnu wa-l-Turāth (We and the Heritage), 1980