Professor Nader El-Bizri is an Affiliated Scholar with the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and an Associate of the Senior Combination Room at King's College. He has been a Leverhulme Visiting Professor in History of Science and Philosophy at Durham University, and is a tenured full Professor of Civilization Studies and Philosophy at the American University of Beirut, where he served as the Director of the university-wide General Education core program in the liberal arts, and previously acted as the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the Chairperson of Civilization Studies. Prior to joining the American University of Beirut in 2012, he taught and conducted research at the universities of Nottingham, Lincoln, Cambridge, Harvard, the London Consortium, the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. He received his PhD in Philosophy in 1999 from the New School for Social Research in New York, and the MArch-II in Architecture in 1994 from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. His expertise is in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Architectural Theory, and Phenomenology. Moreover, he serves on various editorial boards of academic publishers internationally, including his General Editorship of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Oxford University Press series. He also acted as a referee to international research bodies, learned societies, and universities internationally, including the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK, in addition to the EU Paris-Region Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs, and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His diverse cultural portfolios include consultancies and advisory services to the Science Museum in London, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Geneva, and the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in Berlin. He practiced as an architectural designer in London, Cambridge, New York, and Beirut, and featured as a guest speaker on BBC and France Culture radio and television programs. He received various awards and honours, including the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Prize, and designated as a Mellon Global Liberal Arts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College in the USA.
Email: ne209@cam.ac.uk
Selected publications
Books
The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications SUNY, 2000)
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. On Arithmetic and Geometry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. On Composition and the Arts, co-ed. with G. de Callataÿ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018)
L'Expérience, co-auteur avec Martin Jay, Achille Mbembe, et al (Paris: Editions la Découverte, 2004)
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. The Ikhwān al-Ṣafā' and their Rasā'il (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Recto-Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook, co-ed. with A. Bartram and D. Gittens (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2014)
Asad Rustum: Mu'assis 'ilm al-tārīkh fī al-'ālam al-'arabī, co-ed. with L. Shehadeh, et al (Beirut: Dār al-Fārābī, 2015)
Practicing Philosophy in Lebanon (Beirut-Bonn: German Orient-Institut Beirut, 2017)
The Occult Sciences in Pre-Modern Islamic Cultures, co-ed. with Eva Orthmann (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2018)
Roshdi Rashed. Founding Figures and Commentators in Arabic Mathematics, editor of the translation (London: Routledge, 2011)
'Islam Division' of the Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions, editor (Dordrecht-Berlin: Springer, 2013), 4 Vols.
Peer-reviewed chapters
'Relativism in the Islamic Traditions', in The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Relativism, ed. Martin Kusch (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 20–28.
'Islamicate Thought in the European Intellectual Milieu', Islam in the West, ed. Renee Hattar (Amman: Friedrich Naumann Stiftung & The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, 2020), pp. 46–51.
'Art and Science: Historical Confluences and Modern Dialectics', in Art/Science: Armchair and Paintbrush, eds. Shyam Wuppuluri and Dali Wu (Dordrecht: Springer, 2019), pp. 11–30.
'A Levantine Reception of Heidegger', in Heidegger and the Islamicate World (New Heidegger Research Series), eds. K. Moser and U. Gösken (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), pp. 69–84.
'Death', Critical Terms in Futures Studies, ed. H. Paul (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), pp. 67–72.
'Phenomenology of Place and Space in our Epoch: Thinking along Heideggerian Pathways', in The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places, ed. Erik Champion (London: Routledge, 2018), pp. 123–143.
'The Occult in Numbers: The Arithmology and Arithmetic of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā'', in The Occult Sciences in Pre-Modern Islamic Cultures, co-edited with Eva Orthmann (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2018), pp. 17–40.
'Avicenna and the Meaning of Life', in The Meaning of Life and the Great Philosophers, eds. Stephen Leach and James Tartaglia (London: Routledge, 2018), pp. 95–103.
'Qawl fī al-makān', in Practicing Philosophy in Lebanon / Pratiquer la philosophie au Liban / Mumārasat al-falsafa fī lubnān, a trilingual volume, ed. Nader El-Bizri (Beirut-Bonn: German Orient-Institut Beirut, in association with Dār al-Fārābī, 2017), Arabic division, pp. 15–27.
'Ibn al-Haytham's Discourse on Place', in Practicing Philosophy in Lebanon / Pratiquer la philosophie au Liban / Mumārasat al-falsafa fī lubnān, a trilingual volume, ed. Nader El-Bizri (Beirut-Bonn: German Orient-Institut Beirut, in association with Dār al-Fārābī, 2017), English division, pp. 47–78.
'Les Cahiers noirs de Heidegger', in Amiel et le Journal Philosophique, ed. Nicole Hatem (Beyrouth: Presses de l'Université Saint-Joseph, 2017), pp. 253–277.
'Transnational Islamism and Heidegger's Reflections on Technology', in Heidegger and the Global Age (New Heidegger Research Series), eds. Antonio Cerella and Louiza Odysseos (London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017), pp. 43–62.
'Avicenna and the Problem of Consciousness', in Consciousness and the Great Philosophers, eds. Stephen Leach and James Tartaglia (London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 45–53.
'Grosseteste's Meteorological Optics: Explications of the Phenomenon of the Rainbow after Ibn al-Haytham', in Robert Grosseteste and the Pursuit of Religious and Scientific Knowledge in the Middle Ages, ed. Jack Cunningham, Mark Hocknull (Dordrecht: Springer, 2016), pp. 21–39.
'Desargues' oeuvres: On perspective, optics and conics', in Visioning Technologies in Architecture, ed. Graham Cairns (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2016), pp. 36–51.
'Seeing Reality in Perspective: The "Art of Optics" and the "Science of Painting"', in The Art of Science: From Perspective Drawing to Quantum Randomness, eds. Rossella Lupacchini and Annarita Angelini (Dordrecht-Berlin: Springer, 2014), pp. 25–47.
'By Way of an Overture: Classical Optics and Renaissance Pictorial Arts', in Recto-Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook, eds. N. El-Bizri with A. Bartram, D. Gittens (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2014), pp. 11–26.
'Parerga – Carnet de Croquis: "ni oeuvre, ni hors d'oeuvre"', in Recto-Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook, eds. N. El-Bizri with A. Bartram and D. Gittens (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2014), pp. 27–38.
'Philosophising at the Margins of "Shi'i Studies": Reflections on Ibn Sīnā', in The Study of Shi'i Islam, eds. Farhad Daftary and Gurdofarid Miskinzoda (London: I. B. Tauris, 2014), pp. 585–597.
'Rasāʾil falsafiyyah: Mirzā Abū al-Ḥasan Jilwā', in An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia, Vol. V, eds. S. Hossein Nasr, M. Aminrazavi (London: I. B. Tauris, 2014), pp. 516–528.
'Variations ontologiques autour du concept d'angoisse chez Kierkegaard', in Kierkegaard, notre contemporain, ed. Nicole Hatem (Beyrouth-Copenhagen: Presses universitaires de l'USJ – Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, 2013), pp. 83–95.
'The Conceptual Bearings of the Intercultural Roles of Architecture', in The Cultural Role of Architecture, eds. Paul Emmons, John Hendrix, and Jane Lomholt (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 199–207.
'Phenomenological Directives on Reason and Spirit: Rational Discourses and Spiritual Inspirations', in Reason and Spirit and the Sacral in the New Enlightenment: Islamic Philosophy Revived and Recent Phenomenology of Life, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Berlin: Springer, 2011), pp. 185–193.
'Corollaries on Space and Time in Arabic Sciences & Philosophy', in Chrono-Topologies: Hybrid Spatialities & Multiple Temporalities, ed. L. Kavanaugh (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010), pp. 63–78.
'Classical Optics and the Perspectiva Traditions Leading to the Renaissance', in Renaissance Theories of Vision, eds. C. Carman and J. Hendrix (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 11–30.
'Creative Inspirations or Intellectual Impasses? Reflections on the Relationships between Architecture and the Humanities', in Building Metaphors: Humanities in Design Practice, eds. N. Temple, J. Lomholt, R. Tobe, S. Bandyapodhyay (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 121–133.
'God: Essence and Attributes', in The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology, ed. Tim Winter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 121–140.
'Epistolary Prolegomena: On Arithmetic and Geometry', in Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. The Ikhwān al-Ṣafā' and their Rasā'il, ed. Nader El-Bizri (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 180–213.
'Le problème de l'espace: Approches optique, géométrique et phénoménologique', in Oggetto e spazio. Fenomenologia dell'oggetto, forma e cosa dai secoli XIII–XIV ai post-cartesiani, ed. Graziella Federici Vescovini and Orsola Rignani. Micrologus 24 (Firenze: SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2008), pp. 59–70.
'Hermeneutics and Tradition: Re-gathering the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity', in Islam ve Klasik, ed. Sami Erdem. Klasik 44 (Istanbul: Bilim ve Sanat Vakfi, 2008), pp. 339–360.
'Imagination and Architectural Representations', in From Models to Drawings: Imagination and Representation in Architecture, eds. Marco Frascari, Jonathan Hale, Bradley Starkey (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 34–42.
'Some Phenomenological and Classical Corollaries on Time', in Timing and Temporality in Islamic Philosophy and Phenomenology of Life, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2007), pp. 137–155.
'Microcosm and Macrocosm: A Tentative Encounter between Graeco-Arabic Philosophy and Phenomenology', in Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology on the Perennial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2006), Part I – Chapter 1, pp. 3–23.
'Being and Necessity: A Phenomenological Investigation of Avicenna's Metaphysics and Cosmology', in Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology on the Perennial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2006), Part V - Chapter 1, pp. 243–261.
'The Conceptions of Nature in Arabic Thought', in Keywords: Nature, eds. Nadia Tazi et al. (New York: Other Press, 2005) + (New Delhi: Vistaar Publications, Sage, 2005), pp. 63–92.
'Avicenna's De Anima between Aristotle and Husserl', in The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), pp. 67–89.
Peer-refereed articles in academic journals
'Alhazen's Theory of Vision', Micrologus (Edizioni del Galluzzo) XXIX (2021): 21–33.
'Being at Home in Solitary Quarantine: Phenomenological Analytics and Existential Meditations', Studia UBB. Philosophia, Vol. 65, Issue 2 (2020): 7–32.
'La question de l'être d'Avicenne à Heidegger', Noesis 32 (Automne 2018): 221–240.
'al-Ḥasan bin al-Ḥasan bin al-Haytham wa'l-manāhij al-handasiyya wa'l-tajrībiyya fī'l-buḥūth al-'ilmiyya al-klāsīkiyya', in Annales de l'Institut de lettres orientales (Université Saint-Joseph), Vol. 10 (2018): 217–240.
'Arabic Classical Traditions in the History of the Exact Sciences: The Case of Ibn al-Haytham', The European Physical Journal Plus, Vol. 133 (2018): 271–277.
'Defining Place with or against Aristotle: The case of the Brethren of Purity and Alhazen', Studi Magribini Vols. XII-XIII (2014-2015): 299–317.
'Falsafa: A Labyrinth of Theory and Method', Synthesis Philosophica Vol. 62 (2016): 295–311.
'On Dwelling: Heideggerian Allusions to Architectural Phenomenology', Studia UBB. Philosophia, Vol. 60, Issue 1 (2015): 5–30.
'Ontological Meditations on Tillich and Heidegger', Iris: Annales de Philosophie, Vol. 36 (2015): 109–114.
'Al-Falsafa wa'l-fikr al-islāmī bayn jadaliyyat al-turāth wa'l-tajdīd', The Near East School of Theology Theological Review, Vol. 36, Issue 2 (2015): 175–184.
'Le renouvellement de la falsafa?', Les Cahiers de l'Islam Vol. I (2014): 17–38.
'Taṣdīr awwalī ḥawl al-mabāḥith al-manṭiqiyya fī Finominolojia Husserl', al-Maaḥajja, Vol. 29 (2014): 109–120.
'Ta'ammulāt falsafiyya fī al-ṭabī'a la-insāniyya ḥawl tadākhul al-ākhar fī al-dhāt', al-Maḥajja, Vol. 27 (2013): 85–100.
'Spirituality in the Peripatetic Philosophical Traditions of Islam', Comparative Philosophy, Vol. 3, Issue 2 (2012): 29–35.
'Being at Home Among Things: Heidegger's Reflections on Dwelling', Environment, Space, Place, Vol. 3, Issue 1 (2011): 47–71.
'Ibn Sīnā's Ontology and the Question of Being', Ishrāq: Islamic Philosophy Yearbook (Russian Academy of Sciences & The Iranian Institute of Philosophy) Vol. II (2011): 222–237.
'The Groundbreaking Physics of Averroes', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (Cambridge University Press) Vol. 42 (2011): 210–214.
'Renewing the Impetus of Philosophical Thinking in Islam: The Case of Ibn Sīnā and Ibn al-Haytham', Philosophia Islamica Vol. 1 (2011).
'The Labyrinth of Philosophy in Islam', Comparative Philosophy 1.2 (2010): 3–23.
'Al-Sīnawiyya wa-naqd Hāydighir li-tārīkh al-mītāfīzīqā', al-Maḥajja, Vol. 21 (2010): 119–140.
'Ibn al-Haytham et le problème de la couleur', Oriens-Occidens: sciences, mathématiques et philosophie de l'antiquité à l'âge classique (Cahiers du Centre d'Histoire des Sciences et des Philosophies Arabes et Médiévales, CNRS), Vol. 7 (2009): 201–226.
'In Defence of the Sovereignty of Philosophy: al-Baghdādī's Critique of Ibn al-Haytham's Geometrisation of Place', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), Vol. 17, Issue 1 (2007): 57–80.
'Being-towards-death: On Martyrdom and Islam', Cristianismo nella storia: Ricerche storiche esegetiche teologiche, Vol. 27 (2006): 249–279.
'Uneasy Meditations Following Levinas', Studia Phaenomenologica, Vol. 6 (2006): 293–315.
'A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen's Optics', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), Vol. 15, Issue 2 (2005): 189–218.
'La perception de la profondeur: Alhazen, Berkeley et Merleau-Ponty', Oriens-Occidens: sciences, mathématiques et philosophie de l'antiquité à l'âge classique (Cahiers du Centre d'Histoire des Sciences et des Philosophies Arabes et Médiévales), Vol. 5 (2004): 171–184.
'ON KAI ΧΩΡΑ: Situating Heidegger between the Sophist and the Timaeus', Studia Phaenomenologica, Vol. IV, Issues 1–2 (2004): 73–98.
'Ontopoiēsis and the Interpretation of Plato's Khôra', Analecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, Vol. LXXXIII (2004): 25–45.
'Religion and Measure', Phenomenological Inquiry, Vol. 27 (2003): 128–155.
'A Phenomenological Account of the "Ontological Problem of Space"', Existentia Meletai-Sophias, Vol. XII, Issue 3–4 (2002), pp. 345–364.
'Avicenna and Essentialism', Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 54 (2001): 753–778.
'"Qui-êtes vous Khôra?": Receiving Plato's Timaeus', Existentia Meletai-Sophias, Vol. XI, Issues 3–4 (2001): 473–490.
