Zachary Candy

PhD project

Working title: The Analogy of Existence (tashkīk al-wujūd) in Islamic Philosophy: Sources and Development

My project traces the doctrine of tashkīk al-wujūd (lit. the "ambiguity" of existence) from its Aristotelian and Neoplatonist origins to its first definitive expression in the works of Avicenna (d. 1037). I also examine the doctrine's subsequent critique by postclassical philosophers and its eventual rehabilitation and development by the Persian polymath Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274), who guarantees its legacy as a staple of later kalām handbooks and commentaries by the likes of Taftāzānī, Jurjānī, and Qūshjī.