[SydPhil] CHOP Research Seminar this Thursday - Dr Milad Milani

[Catherine Wesselinoff]

Dear All,



The Centre for the History of Philosophy (CHOP) at the University of Notre Dame Australia warmly invites you to our next Research Seminar.



SPEAKER: Dr Milad Milani (Western Sydney University)



TITLE: Mystical Knowledge and the Limits of Reason: Al-Ghazālī and Gregory Palamas (abstract below)



DATE: Thursday 18 September 2025



TIME: 1:00 pm-2:30 pm (Sydney time)



IN-PERSON LOCATION:

Moorgate Room

The University of Notre Dame (Sydney)

10 Grafton St, Chippendale, NSW



ONLINE:

Microsoft Teams Meeting:  https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/WSf7Cvl1rKiAYvvvBfQfptQDlcs?domain=tinyurl.com<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/WSf7Cvl1rKiAYvvvBfQfptQDlcs?domain=tinyurl.com>

Meeting ID: 459 726 031 440 3

Passcode: 29rc6PK2


POSTER: https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/VZF_CwV1vMfyqoooOtqhotJtefW?domain=tinyurl.com<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/VZF_CwV1vMfyqoooOtqhotJtefW?domain=tinyurl.com>



ABSTRACT: This talk offers a comparative study of the epistemologies of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and Gregory Palamas, highlighting their shared resistance to the overintellectualization of theology through Greek philosophical categories. Both thinkers critique the limitations of Aristotelian and Platonic conceptions of knowledge, particularly their abstraction of the divine and the reduction of metaphysical inquiry to rational demonstration.



Al-Ghazālī, disillusioned with kalām and falsafa, turns to Sufism and the epistemology of kashf (unveiling), grounding knowledge of God in direct, transformative experience. Similarly, Palamas, in response to Barlaam of Calabria, defends the Eastern Christian tradition of theōria, asserting that divine energies can be encountered in contemplative prayer. I explore the parallel between al-Ghazālī’s distinction between speculative knowledge and spiritual certainty, and Palamas’ essence-energies distinction, both of which affirm the possibility of real, if non-conceptual, participation in the divine. Drawing on the critique of metaphysics in Heidegger’s later thought, I also consider both figures as pointing toward a renewed understanding of truth as unveiling (aletheia) rather than propositional mastery.



I challenge the prevailing narrative that Islamic and Byzantine philosophy merely extends or reproduces Greek thought, arguing instead for the distinctiveness and enduring relevance of the mystical-theological epistemologies articulated by al-Ghazālī and Palamas.


Dr Catherine Wesselinoff | Lecturer
School of Philosophy and Theology
The University of Notre Dame Australia.
Book a meeting with me<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/01a6CxngwOfx7ZZZGiYiqtyujHn?domain=outlook.office.com> <https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/01a6CxngwOfx7ZZZGiYiqtyujHn?domain=outlook.office.com>

Recent Publications:
"Beauty's Comeback", Debates in Aesthetics, Vol 19. No. 2, 2025, pp 35-45.
"Apophatic Beauty in the Hippias Major and the Symposium", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 82, Issue 1, 2024, pp 36-44.
The Revival of Beauty: Aesthetics, Experience, and Philosophy, Routledge, 2023.

"Is jealousy justifiable?" The European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 31, No. 3, 2023, pp 703-10.

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