Background Information
Professor of Philosophy B.A., M.A., University of Peshawar Ph.D., University of Hawaii
M. Ashraf Adeel's philosophical interests include contemporary philosophy of language and science, as well as modern Islamic thought. Adeel has published research articles in philosophy of language, science, Islamic Ethics, and epistemology. His recent book Epistemology of the Quran: Elements of a Virtue Approach to Knowledge and Understanding (Springer 2019) is the first on the virtue epistemology of the Quran covering all the epistemic concepts in the text. His book on language and underdetermination in Quine and Davidson was published under the title: How Do We Deal With Different World Views If They Are Based On The Same Evidence: The Philosophical Problem of Underdetermination in Quine and Davidson. The book is a sustained defense of underdetermination and possibility of alternative conceptual schemes or world views both in science and in general.
His most recent articles include “A Virtue-Theoretic Approach to the Concept of a University”, Existenz: An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts, Vol. 13/2, Fall 2018, “Islamic Ethics in Dialogue with Socrates, Jesus, and Confucius” The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 34, No. 1, winter 2017, “Moderation in Greek and Islamic Traditions and A Virtue Ethics of the Quran,” The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 32, No. 3, summer 2015, “The Evolution of Quine's Thinking on the Thesis of Underdetermination and Scott Soames' Accusation of Paradoxicality,” HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science. Vol. 5, Spring 2015, and “The Concept of Understanding in Jaspers and Contemporary Epistemology,” Existenz, Vol. 10/1, spring 2015.
Dr. Adeel’s second anthology of Urdu poems Sumundar Raqs Karta Hay (Oceans in Ecstatic Dance) came out in 2019. The first anthology Hawa kay haath khaali hain [Empty-handed Cosmic Winds] came out in 2015 from Pakistan.
In addition, he has published such articles as "Modernity and Muslims: A Selective Retrieval" (2011) and "Diversity and Exclusivity: A Religion Needs Both," (2009) in American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, and "Islamic Ethics and the Controversy about the Moral Heart of Confucianism," in Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 2008. He is particularly interested in pluralism (religious, epistemic, and that of
conceptual schemes), traditions and modernity, and Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein. Some of his earlier work includes "Faith, Violence, and Our Integral Humanity: An Ecological Perspective," American Philosophical Association Newsletters, Newsletter on International Cooperation, 2005, "Tarski's Theory of Truth and Davidson's Semantics," The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1994, and "Language and Translatability: Tarski versus Davidson," International Philosophical Quarterly, 1991. "Kripke's Wittgenstein's View of Language as a Social Practice" (1990, Journal of Law and Society); "Kierkegaard and the Paradox" (1990, Pakistan, Journal of the Pakistan Study Centre, Peshawar); "Wittgenstein's Skeptical Paradox and Quine's Thesis of Underdetermination: A Parallel" (1989, Pakistan Philosophical Journal).
M. Ashraf Adeel has held a Professorship in Philosophy at University of Peshawar, was a senior visiting fellow at Linacre College Oxford in 1999, is the past President of the Pakistan Philosophical Congress (2001-2003) and was founding Vice-Chancellor of Hazara University (2001-2002).
Dr. Adeel teaches symbolic logic, introduction to critical thinking, introduction to logic, introduction to ethics, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, history of scientific ideas, American philosophy, interpretations of the Quran, and modern philosophy
Publications
Publications:
Books
· Epistemology of the Quran: Elements of a Virtue Approach to Knowledge and Understanding, Springer 2019. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-17558-0
· How Do We Deal with Conflicts Between Different World Views if They are Based on the Same Evidence? (On Underdetermination) Lewiston, NY: Mellen Press, 2010
Urdu
Poetry
· Sumundar Raqs Karta Hay, (Ocean in Ecstatic Dance), Misaal Publishers, Faisal Abad, Pakistan, 2019. https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FhsEIRLYq2rk%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1P9cRMkMD7hKqOGTqNNMy910yJRetjvlNLvLPhLFszEe103rWJz4f-60k&h=AT0SZG2VbZEscWNjc3JcArXZZO5mUwgBLHII1InSwjBcbUATMsRoKk26bacetMNd6zQV5oTUBNdYYu6NCFrnQAC-C3VSxUdieQaryD_I4-5exqZhfMpU61bnw2RSXpA38Mwdmg · Hawa kay haath khaali hain (Empty-Handed Cosmic Winds), Misaal Publishers, Faisal Abad, Pakistan, 2015
E-Books
· Fallacies in Reasoning, https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/530135, 2015
· Love Across Wars, A Novel that grapples with the gulf created between cultures by the tragic catastrophe of 9/11. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-across-wars-m-ashraf-adeel/1140502427
Articles
· · “Evolution of Quine’s Thinking on the Thesis of Underdetermination and Scott Soames’s Accusation of Paradoxicality,” HOPOS, vol. 5 (Spring 2015)
· · “Moderation in Greek and Islamic Traditions, and a Virtue Ethics of the Qur’an,” American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, special issue, 32:3 (Summer), 2015
· · “The Concept of Understanding in Jaspers and Contemporary Epistemology,” Existenz 10:1 (Spring), 2015
· · Modernity and Muslims: A Selective Retrieval,” American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 28:1, Winter 2011
· · “Diversity and Exclusivity: A Religion Needs Both,” American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 26:1, 2009
· · “Islamic Ethics and the Controversy about the Moral Heart of Confucianism,” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 7:2, 2008
· · “An Outline of Islamic Ethics: With Brief Application to some Current Aspects of Muslim Societies,” The Preston Journal of Social Sciences, 1:1, Sep. 2008
· · "Substitutional Quantification and Ontology," Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 1:2, Sep. 1993
· · "Fall of an Ideology: Some Intellectual Implications of Breakdown of the Marxist Paradigm," Central Asia : Journal of Area Study Centre, Peshawar, No. 32, 1993
· · Davidson on the Problem and Theory of Interpretation," Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. No I, University of Peshawar, 1993(no such pdf)
· · "Realism versus Anti-Realism," Iqbal Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, 1992
· · "Language and Translatability: Tarski versus Davidson," International Philosophical Quarterly,Vol.XXXI, No. 4, Issue No. 124, New York, 1991
· · "The Indivisibility of Knowledge: A Critical Analysis of Holistic Views," Central Asia: Journal of Area Study Centre, No. 28, 1991
· · "On the Incoherence of the Underdetermination Thesis," Presidential Address for the Philosophy of Science Section of Pakistan Philosophical Congress, 1990, proceedings
· · "Kripke's Wittgenstein's View of Language as a Social Practice," Journal of Law and Society, Vol. IX, No. 14, 1990
· · "Kierkegaard and the Paradox," Pakistan, Journal of the Pakistan Study Centre, Peshawar, Nos.21 & 22, 1990
· · “Wittgenstein’s Picture Theory of Meaning.” Reprinted from Al-Hikmat, the Research Journal of the Department of Philosophy, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 1989
