If in the past our scholars wrestled with the Jahmites, Jabarites, Mu’tazilites, Sufusta’iyyun, it is thought that modern science today poses a greater challenge to belief than these now defunct sects. Less acknowledged however, is the philosophical bases that constitute modern science which are often the culprit, not the accumulation of empirical data itself, for this by itself is a legitimate pursuit. But rarely are these facts acquired through sense-perception left as raw materials. On the contrary, the organization of these into a coherent whole and the arrival at conclusions themselves presuppose a philosophical framework. It is this philosophical framework that determines what to be studied, what methodology to use and the fundamental assumptions concerning the subject matter, be it nature, man, society or the metaphysical realms. Often they are suppressed and adopted as a valid starting point, with hardly any scrutiny being made as to their veracity. More insidious though, is the unbridled faith and dogma towards this approach that allowed for its infiltration into other disciplines, particularly by what is now designated as the ‘social sciences’.
The uncritical emulation of the so-called ‘scientific method’ has meant that the so-called ‘scientific’ claims are often taken as conclusive and definitive proposition concerning reality, even to the point of formulating comprehensive philosophies that purport to explain things in their essential and fundamental nature. Immanuel Kant’s skepticism on the possibility of metaphysics and the subordination of reason to the senses have meant that only the fragmentary data acquired by the latter through observation and experimentation have any solid credentials. This paradigm has been influential even beyond the ‘natural sciences’ so that even the ‘social sciences’ typically take as conclusive any assertion regarding reality, truth and man as presented by the former, and build their intellectual edifice based on that presumption. But such empirical observations, as Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas explained, can only yield knowledge about factual occurrences (waqi’), which relate to only parts of reality, not of reality (haqiqah) itself, which is holistic and relates to the totality of things. Naturally when the foundations are shaky, so too, will be the entire structure. But is these sciences that form the basis on which ‘public’ sphere is constructed, including the law-making processes and the formulation of public policies.
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