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Peter Coates, Ibn 'Arabi and Modern Thought: The History of Taking Metaphysics Seriously, Oxford, Anqa Publishing, 2002.Ibn ʿArabi and Modern Thought deals with some of the findings of modern philosophy, social science and psychology, in an open discourse between the ancient and the modern, the traditional and the scientific, the industrial and the personal. It is an invitation to reconsider some of the central and defining ideas of modernity in the light of Ibn ʿArabi's writings on the Unity of Existence.In these global times it is a curious and pertinent fact that the life and writings of Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi, which constitute one of the most penetrating and extraordinary metaphysical and spiritual teachings the world has ever known, still remain relatively unknown and undiscussed in the Western theoretical architecture of the twenty-first century.What is perhaps unexpected is not only the modern ring of much of his thought, but also its ability to reconceptualise modernity's own self-descriptions and understandings, and to bring out hitherto unnoticed features of its landscape.Ibn ʿArabi's remarks on causality, time, contingency, necessity, epistemology, ontology, ethics and aesthetics alone would entice even the most wary of modernity's intellectual authorities.This ground-breaking book includes extensive notes, bibliography, and name and subject indexes.Ibn ʿArabi and Modern Thought will appeal to academics and students in the fields of psychology, sociology, and philosophy, as well as readers with an academic and/or personal interest in Ibn ʿArabi.&#160;