William Upson

William Upson is a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of History, Religions and Philosophies, researching the Islamic ethical work, the Jāmiʿ al-Saʿādāt, written by the 18th Century Persian scholar Muḥammad Mahdī Naraqī (d. 1795), under the supervision of Professor Ayman Shihadeh. 

A researcher of the Akhlāq tradition (the Islamicate ethical philosophical tradition, a form of virtue ethics), William is exploring how Naraqi’s Jāmiʿ evolved upon prior Greco-Islamic conceptions of ethics, and considering how numerous influences were added and synthesised into Naraqi’s work, such as the influence of the Sufi tradition (the Islamic mystical tradition), Shīʿī thought, Avicennian psychology and the thought of Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1635), and his school. More broadly, William’s interests lie in Islamicate Philosophy, especially ethics, but also other fields like Islamic philosophical psychology and the adab tradition (etiquette), including the thought of scholars such as the Persian scholar Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d. 1037) and the Jacobite thinker Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī (d. 974).   

William has completed a Masters in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, graduating in 2023 with a 1st Class Degree, and three Dean's Commendations for Exceptional Performance. This degree included periods of studying the Arabic language abroad in Qasid Institute in Amman, Jordan, and Taa Marbouta Institute in Carthage, Tunisia. His Master’s Dissertation examined how the Greek concept of akrasia (weakness of will) was considered in the ethics of the Persian scholar Miskawayh (d. 1030) in his own work, the Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq (On the Refinement of Character), under the supervision of Professor Sajjad Rizvi. 

He has studied texts in their original Arabic and in translation, including those such as Yahya ibn Adi’s own Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq, and the Pseudo-Aristotelian Sirr al-Asrār (The Secret of Secrets), a purported letter from Aristotle to his pupil, Alexander the Great, which included elements of akhlāq, adab, and political philosophy. Earlier on in his career, he has also examined the epistemology of the philosophical novel Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, written by the Andalusian scholar Ibn Ṭufayl (d. 1185). 

• History of Ideas
• History of Philosophy
• Islamicate Philosophy
• Islamic Ethics
• Islamic Studies