Axiomatic and Speculative Concepts and the Criterion for Self-evidence: Muslim Foundationalism in Concepts

The article examines the division of concepts into axiomatic and speculative ones as the epistemologically most useful division of concepts. Although this division is questioned form an ontological point of view, but there is no doubt, according to the author, about their epistemological realization.Having defined the terms “axiomatic” and “speculative”, the author appraises such doubts. Then he enumerates axiomatic and speculative concepts, and analyzes their relation to thought. The problem of “the criterion of self-evidence” shapes the core of the article, in which, the author evaluates, in detail, major Muslim ideas about conceptual foundationalism.