Beatrice Bottomley
PhD Student
Research Interests: Translation and Reception Studies | History of Philosophy | Philosophies of Language | Poetics | Word and Image | History of Communication Technology and Media | Islamic Philosophy
Year PhD started: 2019
beatrice.bottomley@postgrad.sas.ac.uk
Thesis
Being Things with Words: Ibn 'Arabi's Theory and Practice of Language.
Beatrice Bottomley's research examines the theory of language developed by Ibn 'Arabi (1165 AD, Murcia - 1240 AD, Damascus) in his magnum opus al-Futuhat al-makkiyya, ‘The Meccan Openings’. By examining this theory within the wider contexts of the history of philosophy and science, her project explores how Ibn 'Arabi's cosmological approach to language offered the metaphysical framework for practical techniques developed by key intellectual figures working within the political elites of the early modern Ottoman, Timurid, and Mughal empires. In this way, Beatrice's research not only extends scholarship of premodern theories of language beyond the spheres of logic and grammar, but also presents a site for reflection on the operative function of language in the world around us, thus offering potential insights into the purpose and limits of language in our contemporary digital age.
Supervisors: Professor Charles Burnett / Doctor Kazuyo Murata