A major question in the historiography of the Scientific Revolution is why a scientific did not occur in the Islamic world. Scholars who have dealt with the question have generally pointed to one or another cause for the disappearance of science and rationality in the Greek tradition by the 12th century. Unfortunately for such accounts, more recent research has shown that that science in the Greek tradition, philosophy, and logic continued to be cultivated in the Islamic world into modern times. What was different was a focus on mysticism and related issues in later Islamic philosophy and the dominance of legal and linguistic concerns in logic. Moreover, there was no sharp cultural break in the Islamic (or Chinese) world comparable to the Protestant Reformation.

Professor Walbridge's research interests include Islamic philosophy, studies, intellectual history (emphasis on the cultural role of philosophy and science), and Baha'i studies.