UC Berkeley

Widely studied throughout the eastern Islamic world from the 13th century to the 19th were three paradoxes of self-reference: the paradox of the absolute unknown (shubhat al-majhūl al-muṭlaq/al-jidhr al-abkam), the Liar paradox (shubhat al-jidhr al-aṣamm), and the paradox of the totality of all relations (shubhat majmūʿ al-nisab). Over six hundred years’ worth of debate is here clearly organized and summarized, its philosophical significance carefully analyzed, and its historical trajectory documented. The broader historical results bear on questions that have occupied the minds of specialists in the field for decades, including the question of intellectual decline in the post-classical Islamic world.