The Final Word: Al-Dawani and the Liar Paradox in the Islamic World

This volume presents a new English translation of Jalal al-Din al-Dawani's (1424-1502) treatise on the ancient problem of the Liar Paradox, along with an extensive historical introduction and a detailed commentary on the text. Al-Dawani was a distinguished Persian philosopher who wrote important texts in logic, philosophy, theology, and ethics. His text includes a critical discussion of several proposed solutions to the Paradox, and touches on a wide range of topics in philosophical logic and the philosophy of language, including the problem of empty names, the status of reductio ad absurdum, the possibility of self-reference, and the role of speaker intention in restricting the scope of subject and predicate terms. Al-Dawani's own proposed solution involves the articulation of a grounding constraint on truth-aptness of the same sort proposed in the 20th century by Hans Herzberger and Saul Kripke, a constraint that is defended in part by an analysis of the distinction between declarative and non-declarative discourse that is reminiscent of, but different than, J.L. Austin's analysis of the distinction between declarative and performative discourse.

In this translation, Ahmed Alwishah and David Sanson introduce a text from very late post-Avicennan philosophy to the English speaking world. Not only does it introduce a new source for a vast field of academia, but it contributes to a growing period of scholarly interest. This translation will spur robust debate amongst students and scholars of the history of Islamic thought, logic, and the philosophy of language.