Nazif Muhtaroğlu
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Academic Profile

Nazif Muhtaroğlu

Research Scholar · Brandeis University

A scholar working at the intersection of Islamic philosophy and theology, philosophy of mind, early modern thought, and artificial intelligence. Two decades of inquiry into occasionalism, causality, and the question of free will.

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Currently
Brandeis University · 2026—
Previously
Yale · Harvard
ORCID
0000-0001-8393-5626
01 — About

Academic Life

Nazif Muhtaroğlu received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Kentucky in 2012 with a dissertation entitled “Islamic and Cartesian Roots of Occasionalism.” He completed his M.A. and B.A. at Boğaziçi University, and was awarded the Associate Professorship by the Turkish Council of Higher Education in 2021.

Throughout his career he has held research and teaching positions at Harvard (NELC), Boğaziçi, Bahçeşehir, Mimar Sinan, and Yale. As of 2026, he serves as Research Scholar in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He is the founder of the International Society for the Study of Occasionalism.

In 2023 he received the Necati Öner Award for Service to Philosophy from the Turkish Philosophical Society.

02 — Academic Positions

Appointments

  1. 2026 —
    Brandeis University Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies · Research Scholar
  2. 2024 — 2026
    Yale University Department of Philosophy · Associate Research Scholar
  3. 2022 — 2023
    Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations · Research Scholar
  4. 2019 — 2022
    Mimar Sinan University Department of Philosophy · Lecturer
  5. 2015 — 2022
    Bahçeşehir University School of General Education · Lecturer
  6. 2014 — 2016
    Boğaziçi University Department of Philosophy · Research Fellow
  7. 2012 — 2014
    Harvard University NELC · Post-Doctoral Fellow
03 — Research

Areas of Specialization

The work brings together four major axes: causality debates in classical Islamic kalām, early modern thought represented by Descartes and Malebranche, contemporary philosophy of mind, and the philosophical problems of artificial intelligence.

i

Islamic Philosophy & Theology

Ash‘arī, Māturīdī, and al-Bāqillānī traditions; causality, divine attributes, and the question of free will.

ii

Occasionalism

A comparative study of occasionalist traditions in Islamic and Western thought; al-Ghazālī, Malebranche, and the dialogue with modern science.

iii

Philosophy of Mind & AI

Artificial intelligence, free will, and human nature: a Māturīdite engagement with contemporary cognitive science and neuroscience.

iv

Early Modern Philosophy

Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibniz; laws of nature, causality, and the contribution of Islamic thought to the Cartesian tradition.

v

Philosophy of Religion

The existence and uniqueness of God, divine simplicity, the problem of evil; a dialogue between analytic philosophy of religion and the kalām tradition.

vi

Critical Thinking

Interdisciplinary critical thinking and public philosophy; the book Three Aspects of Reason and the Logos Criticos channel are products of this work.

04 — Long-Standing Inquiry

Occasionalism

Causality Reconsidered

For over two decades, occasionalism has stood at the centre of the work — the doctrine that God is the sole true causal agent in nature, defended in different forms by al-Ashʿarī, al-Ghazālī, al-Bāqillānī, the late Ottoman theologians, and by Malebranche in the Cartesian West. The research treats it not as a historical curiosity but as a live position in dialogue with contemporary philosophy of science, free will debates, and the philosophy of artificial intelligence.

i — The Society

International Society for the Study of Occasionalism

Founded by N. Muhtaroğlu — the first international academic society dedicated to gathering scholars from Islamic and Western traditions around occasionalist questions.

occasionalism.com →
ii — The Volumes

Three companion books

A trilogy spanning English and Turkish: a major edited volume on the global state of the field, and two anthologies that bring the foundational primary sources into Turkish for the first time.

  • Occasionalism Revisited (Lockwood Press, 2nd ed., 2025)
  • Vesilecilik · Birinci Kitap (Küre, 2024)
  • Vesilecilik · İkinci Kitap (Küre, 2024)
iii — The Articles

Key peer-reviewed studies

Recent AHCI-Q1 articles examine the doctrine in dialogue with Hume, with neuroscience, and with the late Ottoman occasionalists who first read modern science through a kalāmic lens.

Ibn Sīnā and al-Ghazālī on Causality as Necessary Connection, and Occasionalism Theology and Science · 2025 AHCI · Q1 Akkirmânî's Occasionalist Approach to the Neuroscientific Research on the Human Will Religions · 2024 AHCI · Q1 Engaging Jeffrey Koperski's Decretalism: Is Occasionalism Really Avoidable? Religious Studies · 2024 AHCI · Q1
“What we call necessity in nature is, on closer inspection, the regularity of divine custom — open to revision, open to reason, never reducible to brute mechanism.”
— On the kalāmic conception of causality
05 — Books

Authored & Edited Volumes

Author
Free Will and Artificial Intelligence
A Māturīdite Perspective
Palgrave
Forthcoming

Free Will and Artificial Intelligence

A monograph that reframes the question of free will in AI debates through the Māturīdite kalām tradition. Under contract with Palgrave.

Editor
Occasionalism Revisited
New Essays from the Islamic and Western Philosophical Traditions
Lockwood Press · 2nd Ed. · 2025
2025

Occasionalism Revisited

An expanded second edition gathering contemporary readings of occasionalism across the Islamic and Western traditions; three chapters by the editor.

Author
Aklın Üç Yüzü
Eleştirel, Çok-Yönlü ve Yenilikçi Düşünce
Bilge Kültür Sanat · 2022
2022

Aklın Üç Yüzü

A Turkish philosophical study examining critical, multifaceted, and innovative modes of thinking — written for academic and public readers alike.

Editor
Vesilecilik · Birinci Kitap
İslâm Düşüncesinden Seçme Metinler
Küre Yayınları · 2024
2024

Vesilecilik · Birinci Kitap

A Turkish anthology of core texts on occasionalism from the Islamic intellectual tradition with critical introductions.

Editor
Vesilecilik · İkinci Kitap
Batı Düşüncesinden Seçme Metinler ve Eleştiriler
Küre Yayınları · 2024
2024

Vesilecilik · İkinci Kitap

A Turkish anthology covering occasionalist debates and critical responses in the Western philosophical tradition.

Editor
Çağdaş İslâm Düşüncesi
Doruk Bilim Felsefesi Serisi
Doruk Yayınları · 2026
2026

Çağdaş İslâm Düşüncesi

An edited volume on contemporary Islamic thought within the Philosophy of Science series of Doruk Publishers.

Further edited volumes and works in preparation
  • Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka & Nazif Muhtaroğlu (eds.), Classic Issues in Islamic Philosophy and Theology Today. Springer, 2010.
  • Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Nazif Muhtaroğlu & Detlev Quintern (eds.), The Logos of Life and Cultural Interlacing. Springer, 2014.
  • Ali Sedad, Kavâidü’t-Taḥavvülât fî Ḥarekâti’z-Zerrât, edited by N. Muhtaroğlu & B. Ayan. Çizgi Yayınevi, 2020.
  • Ali Sedad, Principles of Transformation in the Motion of Particles: Muslim Theology and Modern Science, ed., trans., annot. N. Muhtaroğlu. Palgrave, forthcoming.
06 — Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles & Chapters

Peer-Reviewed Articles · International AHCI

  1. Ibn Sīnā and al-Ghazālī on Causality as Necessary Connection, and Occasionalism
    Theology and Science, 23(3): 628–639. 2025. AHCI · Q1
    doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2514311
  2. Guided Theistic Rationalism: Al-Ashʿarī's View on Faith and Reason
    Philosophy East and West, Project MUSE. 2025. AHCI · Q2
    dx.doi.org/10.1353/pew.2025.a949968
  3. Engaging Jeffrey Koperski's Decretalism: Is Occasionalism Really Avoidable?
    co-authored with Shoaib A. Malik · Religious Studies, 1–13. 2024. AHCI · Q1
    doi.org/10.1017/S0034412524000635
  4. Akkirmânî's Occasionalist Approach to the Neuroscientific Research on the Human Will
    Religions, 15(9): 1134. 2024. AHCI · Q1
    doi.org/10.3390/rel15091134
  5. How Much Should or Can Science Impact Theological Formulations? An Ashʿarī Perspective on Theology of Nature
    co-authored with Shoaib A. Malik · European Journal of Analytic Philosophy, 18(2): 5–35. 2022. AHCI · Q1
    doi.org/10.31820/ejap.18.2.9
  6. Al-Bāqillāni's Cosmological Argument from Agency
    Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 26(2): 271–289. 2016. AHCI · Q3
    doi.org/10.1017/S0957423916000047

Book Chapters

  1. Scientific Advances in Understanding Human Nature: An Islamic Occasionalist Perspective
    co-authored with Macksood Aftab · in Bridging Bioscience & Islam, ed. Asim Padela. Palgrave, [forthcoming].
  2. Qādī ʿAbd al-Jabbār
    co-authored with Mehmet Bulgen · in Islamic Science: Seven Perspectives, ed. Shoaib A. Malik. Routledge, 2026.
  3. Late Ottoman Occasionalists on Modern Science
    co-authored with Ozgur Koca · in Occasionalism Revisited, ed. N. Muhtaroğlu. Lockwood Press, 2025: 111–133.
  4. Ashʿarites, Cartesians and Occasionalism
    in Occasionalism Revisited, ed. N. Muhtaroğlu. Lockwood Press, 2025: 137–174.
  5. Al-Māturīdī's View of Causality
    in Occasionalism Revisited, ed. N. Muhtaroğlu. Lockwood Press, 2025: 17–39.
  6. God's Existence and The Uniqueness Claim
    in Islamic Philosophy of Religion: Essays from Analytic Perspective, ed. M. S. Zarepour. Routledge, 2024: 64–80.
  7. Ali Sedad Bey's (d.1900) Kavâidü't-Taḥavvülât fî Ḥarekâti'z-Zerrât
    in Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy, eds. K. El-Rouayheb & S. Schmidke. Oxford University Press, 2016: 586–606.
  8. The Christian and Islamic Roots of a Holistic Rhetoric
    in Sharing Poetic Expressions, ed. A.-T. Tymieniecka. Springer, 2011: 139–148.
  9. An Occasionalist Defense of Free Will
    in Classic Issues in Islamic Philosophy and Theology Today, eds. A.-T. Tymieniecka & N. Muhtaroğlu. Springer, 2010: 45–62.
  10. A Linguistic Analysis of the Omnipotence Puzzle
    in Logic, Language and Metaphysics, eds. V. Morato & M. Carrara. College Publication, 2009: 197–211.

Turkish Publications

  1. Plantinga and Ashʿarites on Divine Simplicity
    Kader (Kelam Araştırmaları Dergisi), 18/2: 488–499. 2020.
  2. Tanrı'nın Tekliği'ne Dair Tartışmalar
    Tasavvur (Tekirdağ İlahiyat Dergisi), 6/2: 1153–1164. 2020.
  3. Tanrı'nın Tekliğine Dair Modal Argüman
    Felsefe Arkivi, 51: 179–186. 2019.
  4. What is Wrong with Concurrentism?
    Kaygı, 23: 129–144. 2014.
  5. An Occasionalist Approach to Miracles
    İslâm Araştırmaları Dergisi / Turkish Journal of Islamic Studies, 22: 71–93. 2009.
  6. Nicolas Malebranche
    in Düşüncenin Serüveni, ed. B. A. Çetinkaya. İnsan Yayınları, 2016, c. 3: 115–124.
  7. Ebu'l-Hasan El-Eş'arî
    in Düşüncenin Serüveni, ed. B. A. Çetinkaya. İnsan Yayınları, 2016, c. 5: 169–182.
Book reviews and public-facing essays
  • Mehmet Bulgen, Criticisms of Atomism in Classical Islamic Thought. Cumhuriyet Theology Journal, 22(1): 743–746. 2018.
  • Khaled El-Rouayheb, Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century. Nazariyat, 2(4): 193–197. 2016.
  • Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi (ed.), Theodicy and Justice in Modern Islamic Thought: The Case of Said Nursi. Philosophy East and West, 62(3): 608–610. 2012.
  • Hamidreza Ayatollahi, The Existence of God: Mulla Sadra’s Seddiqin Argument. Philosophy East and West, 58(2): 283–285. 2008.
  • “Özel Adların Anlamı Hakkında Bazı Notlar” — Öncül Analitik Felsefe Dergisi, 2021.
  • “Taş Paradoksu: Gazzâlî ve Aquinas Üzerinden Bir Çözüm Önerisi” — Öncül Analitik Felsefe Dergisi, 2021.
  • “Kategori Hataları, Paradokslar: Husserl ve Russell” — Öncül Analitik Felsefe Dergisi, 2021.
07 — Talks

Selected Presentations

  1. 2024

    "Causality as a Necessary Connection, Occasionalism and A Response to Hume"

    Global Philosophy Group · Yale University · October 2024

  2. 2024

    "AI and Free Will: Kalāmic Perspectives"

    Arabic Philosophy Group · Yale University · February 2024

  3. 2023

    "AI and Free Will: Ashʿarite and Māturīdite Kalām Perspectives"

    5th Annual Islamic Philosophy Conference · Harvard University · December 2023

  4. 2022

    "Qādī ʿAbd al-Jabbār's View of Science"

    4th Annual Islamic Philosophy Conference · Harvard University · December 2022

  5. 2022

    "Revisiting Kalam Foundationalism in Response to Contemporary Challenges"

    Imagining Islamic Epistemology for the 21st Century · Cambridge Muslim College · July 2022

  6. 2021

    "The Existence of God and Other Deities" — Invited Panel

    Closer To Truth · The Global Philosophy of Religion Project · University of Birmingham · June 2021 · YouTube

  7. 2018

    "An Analysis of Strong Artificial Intelligence in terms of Two Ontologies"

    AI Conference · Cambridge Muslim College · September 2018

  8. 2017

    "The Māturīdite View on Human Will and Contemporary Cognitive Psychology"

    Maturidi Conference · Kalam Research and Media · Amman · October 2017

  9. 2016

    "The Islamic Background of Descartes's Laws of Nature"

    Workshop: Early Modern Laws of Nature · Oxford University · July 2016

  10. 2013

    "Al-Māturīdī's View of Causality"

    Occasionalist East and West Conference · Harvard University · May 2013

Conferences organized
  • "Occasionalism and Theories of Causality" — Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, 2-7 Haziran 2015. (co-organized with Chryssi Sidiropoulou)
  • "Occasionalism East and West" — Harvard University, 4-5 Mayıs 2013.
  • "Poetic Expressions: Saying the Same in Different Ways" — Harvard University, 13-14 Ağustos 2009. (co-organized with A.-T. Tymieniecka)
  • "Islamic Philosophy and Theology Today" — University of Kentucky, 28-30 Eylül 2007. (co-organized with Oliver Leaman)
08 — Teaching

Courses Taught

Bahçeşehir University

2015 — 2022
  • Logic I / Critical Thinking
  • Modern (Symbolic) Logic
  • Classical Logic
  • Islamic Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Ethics

Mimar Sinan University

2019 — 2022
  • Medieval Philosophy II: The Islamic World
  • Medieval Philosophy I: The Christian World
  • Philosophy of Religion

Boğaziçi University

2013 — 2015
  • Ghazalian Synthesis
  • The Cartesian Tradition
  • Main Intellectual Traditions in Islam

University of Kentucky

2007 — 2012
  • Introduction to Logic
  • Introduction to Philosophy
  • Ancient–Medieval Philosophy
  • Asian Philosophy

Thesis Supervision

  • Zahra Karandish. A Critical Assessment of Hume's and al-Ghazālī's Views on Critique of Causation. M.A. Thesis · Boğaziçi University, 2018. (co-chair)
  • Ahmet Halil Oğuzhan Gül. Leibniz's Criticism of Occasionalism and a Response through a Reconstruction of al-Ghazālī's and Malebranche's Arguments. M.A. Thesis · Boğaziçi University, 2019. (co-chair)
09 — Awards & Affiliations

Recognition & Leadership

Awards & Fellowships

  1. 2023 Necati Öner Award for Service to Philosophy · Turkish Philosophical Society
  2. 2014–16 TÜBİTAK BİDEB-2232 Research Fellowship
  3. 2014–15 Kalam Research & Media Center / John Templeton Foundation · Book Writing Grant
  4. 2015 Kalam Research & Media Center / John Templeton Foundation · Conference Organization Grant
  5. 2013 Harvard Philosophy Dept. & Science, Religion and Culture Program · Conference Support
  6. 2011 University of Kentucky Graduate School Academic Year Fellowship
  7. 2007 University of Kentucky Commonwealth Research Award

Founding Roles & Affiliations

Founder

International Society for the Study of Occasionalism

An international academic society dedicated to the study of occasionalism.

occasionalism.com →
Founder

Logos Criticos

A YouTube channel producing Turkish-language academic content on critical thinking and philosophy.

YouTube · @logoscriticos →
Member

Yapay Zekâ Politikaları Derneği (AIPA)

An academic association working on artificial intelligence policy.

aipaturkey.org →
Certificate

APPA Philosophical Counseling

Certified philosophical counseling, American Philosophical Practitioners Association.

10 — Contact

Contact & Profiles

For academic collaborations, publication invitations, conference calls, and consultation requests.

Brandeis University
Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Lown 211, MS 054 · 415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453, USA

Academic Profiles

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