Science
in Islamic philosophy by Ziauddin Sardar
Islam attempts to synthesize reason and revelation, knowledge
and values, in its approach to the study of nature. Knowledge acquired through
rational human efforts and through the Qur'an are seen as complementary: both
are 'signs of God' that enable humanity to study and understand nature. Between
the second and eighth centuries AH (eighth and
fifteenth centuries CE), when Muslim
civilization was at its zenith, metaphysics, epistemology and empirical studies
of nature fused to produce an explosion of 'scientific spirit'. Scientists and
scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham, al-Razi, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Sina and al-Biruni
superimposed Plato's and Aristotle's ideas of reason and objectivity on their
own Muslim faith, thus producing a unique synthesis of religion and philosophy.
They also placed great emphasis on scientific methodology, giving importance to
systematic observation, experimentation and theory building. Initially, scientific inquiry was directed by everyday practices
of Islam. For example, developments in astronomy were influenced by the fact
that the times of Muslim prayer were defined astronomically and its direction
was defined geographically. In the later stage, the quest for truth for its own
sake became the norm, leading to numerous new discoveries and innovations.
Muslim scientists did not recognize disciplinary boundaries between the 'two
cultures' of science and humanities, and individual scholars tended as a
general rule to be polymaths. Recently, Muslim scholars have started to develop
a contemporary Islamic philosophy of science by combining such basic Islamic
concepts as 'ilm (knowledge), khilafa (trusteeship of nature) and istisla
(public interest) in an integrated science policy framework. 2.
Methodology 1. Science and metaphysics
The Muslim inspiration for the study of nature comes straight from
the Qur'an. The Qur'an specifically and repeatedly asks Muslims to investigate
systematically natural phenomena, not simply as a vehicle for understanding
nature but also as a means for getting close to God. In Surah 10, for example,
we read: He it is who has made
the sun a [source of] radiant light and the moon a light [reflected], and has
determined for it phases so that you might know how to compute years and to measure
[time]...in the alternative of night and day, and in all that God has created
in the heavens and on earth, there are messages indeed for people who are
conscious of Him. The Qur'an also devotes about one-third of its verses to
describing the virtues of reason. Scientific inquiry, based on reason, is thus
seen in Islam as a form of worship. Reason and revelation are complementary and
integrated methods for the pursuit of truth. The philosophy of science in classical Islam is a product of the
fusion of this metaphysics with Greek philosophy. Nowhere is this more apparent
than in Ibn Sina's theory of human knowledge which, following al-Farabi (§3), transfers the Qur'anic
scheme of revelation to Greek philosophy. In the Qur'an, the Creator addresses
one man - the Prophet - through the agency of the archangel Gabriel; in Ibn
Sina's Neoplatonic scheme, the divine word is transmitted through reason and
understanding to any, and every, person who cares to listen. The result is an
amalgam of rationalism and ethics. For Muslim scholars and scientists, values
are objective and good and evil are descriptive characteristics of reality
which are no less 'there' in things than are their other qualities, such as
shape and size. In this framework, all knowledge, including the knowledge of
God, can be acquired by reason alone. Humanity has power to know as well as to
act and is thus responsible for its just and unjust actions. What this
philosophy entailed both in terms of the study of nature and shaping human
behaviour was illustrated by Ibn Tufayl in his intellectual novel, Hayy ibn Yaqzan. Hayy is a spontaneously generated human who
is isolated on an island. Through his power of observations and the use of his
intellect, Hayy discovers general and particular facts about the structure of
the material and spiritual universe, deduces the existence of God and arrives
at a theological and political . While Mu'tazilite scholars had serious philosophic differences
with their main opponents, the Ash'arite theologians, both schools agreed on
the rational study of nature. In his al-Tamhid, Abu Bakr al-Baqillani
defines science as 'the knowledge of the object, as it really is'. While
reacting to the Mu'tazilite infringement on the domains of faith, the
Ash'arites conceded the need for objective and systematic study of nature.
Indeed, some of the greatest scientists in Islam, such as Ibn al-Haytham (d.
1039), who discovered the basic laws of optics, and al-Biruni (d. 1048), who
measured the circumference of the earth and discussed the rotation of the earth
on its axis, were supporters of Ash'arite theology. The overall concern of Muslim scientists was the delineation of
truth. As Ibn al-Haytham declared, 'truth is sought for its own sake', and
al-Biruni confirmed in the introduction to his al-Qanun al-mas'udi: 'I do not shun the
truth from whatever source it comes.' However, there were disputes about the
best way to rational truth. For Ibn Sina, general and universal questions came
first and led to experimental work. He begins his al-Qanun fi'l-tibb (Canons
of Medicine), which was a standard text in the West up to the eighteenth
century, with a general discussion on the theory of drugs. For al-Biruni,
however, universals came out of practical, experimental work; theories are
formulated after discoveries. But either way, criticism was the key to progress
towards truth. As Ibn al-Haytham wrote, 'it is natural to everyone to regard
scientists favourably.... God, however, has not preserved the scientist from
error and has not safeguarded science from shortcomings and faults' (see Sabra 1972). This is why scientists so often disagree
amongst themselves. Those concerned with science and truth, Ibn al-Haytham continued,
'should turn themselves into hostile critics' and should criticize 'from every
point of view and in all aspects'. In particular, the flaws in the work of
one's predecessors should be ruthlessly exposed. The ideas of Ibn al-Haytham,
al-Biruni and Ibn Sina, along with numerous other Muslim scientists, laid the
foundations of the 'scientific spirit' as we have come to know it. 2. Methodology
The 'scientific method', as it is understood today, was first
developed by the Muslim scientists. Supporters of both Mu'tazilism and
Ash'arism placed a great deal of emphasis on systematic observation and
experimentation. The insistence on accurate observation is amply demonstrated
in the zij, the literature of astronomical handbooks and tables. These were
constantly updated, with scientists checking and correcting the work of
previous scholars. In medicine, Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Razi's detailed and highly
accurate clinical observations in the early third century ah (ninth century ad)
provide us with a universal model. Al-Razi
was the first to observe accurately the symptoms of smallpox and described many
'new' syndromes. However, it was not just accurate observation that was
important; equally significant was the clarity and precision by which the
observations are described, as was demonstrated by Ibn Sina in his writings. The emphasis on model construction and theory building can be seen
in the category of Islamic astronomical literature known as 'ilm al-haya, or 'science of the
structure (of the universe)', which consists of general exposition of
principles underlying astronomical theory. It was on the strength of both
accurate observation and model construction that Islamic astronomy launched a
rigorous attack on what was perceived to be a set of imperfections in Ptolemaic
astronomy. Ibn al-Haytham was the first to declare categorically that the
arrangements proposed for planetary motions in the Almagest were 'false'. Ibn
Shatir (d. 1375) and the astronomers at the famous observatory in Maragha,
Adharbayjan, built in the thirteenth century by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi,
developed the Tusi couple and a theorem for the transformation of eccentric
models into epicyclic ones. It was this mathematical model that Copernicus
used to develop his notion of heliocentricity, which played an important part
in the European 'scientific revolution'. Apart from the exact sciences, the most appropriate and
interesting area in which theoretical work played an essential role was
medicine. Muslim physicians attempted to improve the quality of materia
medica
and their therapeutic uses through continued theoretical development. Emphasis
was also placed on developing a precise terminology and ensuring the purity of
drugs, a concern that led to a number of early chemical and physical
procedures. Since Muslim writers were excellent organizers of knowledge, their
purely pharmacological texts were themselves a source for the development of
theories. Evolution of theories and discovery of new drugs linked the growth of
Islamic medicine to chemistry, botany, zoology, geology and law, and led to
extensive elaborations of Greek classifications. Pharmacological knowledge thus
became more diversified, and produced new types of pharmacological literature.
As this literature considered its subject from a number of different
disciplinary perspectives and a great variety of new directions, there developed
new ways of looking at pharmacology; new areas were opened up for further
exploration and more detailed investigation. Paper-making made publication more
extensive and cheaper than use of parchment and papyrus, and this in turn made
scientific knowledge much more accessible to students. While Muslim scientists placed considerable faith in scientific
method, they were also aware of its limitations. Even a strong believer in
mathematical realism such as al-Biruni argued that the method of inquiry was a
function of the nature of investigation: different methods, all equally valid,
were required to answer different types of questions. Al-Biruni himself had
recourse to a number of methods. In his treatise on mineralogy, Kitab
al-jamahir (Book of Precious Stones), he is the most exact of experimental
scientists. However, in the introduction to his ground-breaking study India he declares that 'to execute our project, it has not
been possible to follow the geometric method'; he therefore resorts to
comparative sociology. The work of a scholar of the calibre and prolificity of al-Biruni
inevitably defies simple classification. He wrote on mineralogy, geography,
medicine, astrology and a whole range of topics which dealt with the dating of
Islamic festivals. Al-Biruni is a specific product of a philosophy of science
that integrates metaphysics with physics, does not attribute to either a
superior or inferior position, and insists that both are worthy of study and
equally valid. Moreover, the methods of studying the vast creation of God -
from the movement of the stars and planets to the nature of diseases, the sting
of an ant, the character of madness, the beauty of justice, the spiritual yearning
of humanity, the ecstasy of a mystic - are all equally valid and shape
understanding in their respective areas of inquiry. In both its philosophy and
methodology, Islam has sought a complete synthesis of science and religion. Polymaths such as al-Biruni, al-Jahiz, al-Kindi,
Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Razi, Ibn
Sina, al-Idrisi, Ibn Bajja, Omar Khayyam, Ibn Zuhr, Ibn
Tufayl, Ibn Rushd, al-Suyuti and thousands of other
scholars are not an exception but the general rule in Muslim civilization. The
Islamic civilization of the classical period was remarkable for the number of
polymaths it produced. This is seen as a testimony to the homogeneity of
Islamic philosophy of science and its emphasis on synthesis, interdisciplinary
investigations and multiplicity of methods. 3. Revival attempts
At the end of the twentieth century, scholars, scientists and
philosophers throughout the Muslim world are trying to formulate a contemporary
version of the Islamic philosophy of science. Two dominant movements have
emerged. The first draws its inspiration from Sufi mysticism and argues that
the notions of 'tradition' and the 'sacred' should constitute the core of
Islamic approach to science. The second argues that issues of science and
values in Islam must be treated within a framework of concepts that shape the
goals of a Muslim society. Ten fundamental Islamic concepts are identified as
constituting the framework within which scientific inquiry should be carried
out, four standing alone and three opposing pairs: tawhid (unity), khilafa (trusteeship), 'ibada (worship), 'ilm (knowledge), halal (praiseworthy) and haram (blameworthy), 'adl (justice) and zulm (tyranny), and istisla (public interest) and dhiya (waste). It is argued
that, when translated into values, this system of Islamic concepts embraces the
nature of scientific inquiry in its totality; it integrates facts and values
and institutionalizes a system of knowing that is based on accountability and
social responsibility. It is too early to say whether either of these movements
will bear any real fruit. References
and further reading
Bakar,
O. (1996) 'Science', in S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman, History of
Islamic Philosophy, London: Routledge, ch. 53, 926-46. (Discussion of some
of the main thinkers and principles of science in Islam.) |