Meaning and Oneness: A Burrellian Reading of Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Approach to Religious Language

This thesis produces a detailed study of the philosophy of religion, and especially the theory of religious language, of ʿAllāmih Siyyid Muḥammad Ḥusiyn-i Ṭabāṭabāʾī, a prominent figure in Shi’a philosophy. It reads Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s work through the prism of David Burrell’s neo-Wittgensteinianism. A particular focus in this thesis is Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s principle of ‘focal meaning’, which serves as a tool to speak of God in an analogical way, allowing Ṭabāṭabāʾī to conceptualise both the transcendence of God and the connection to the realm of creation.