Review and criticism of connective knowledge from Islamic epistemological view

This article aimed to survey and criticizes a new epistemological theory-named connective or distributed knowledge- by descriptiveanalytic method. Although, this theory is close ten years old, has been considered by many academic communities. Connective knowledge climes besides the rational and experimental knowledge, has detected and introduced a third kind of knowledge that is appropriate to digital age. The article has two main sections. At first, epistemological bases and characteristics of connective knowledge have been extracted and then, criticized from Islamic (Sadra) epistemological view. In first section, the outstanding characteristics of connective knowledge, such as the source of knowledge, validity, emergence, pluralism, truth and justification, have been recounted. In second section, reductionism of connective knowledge has been criticized. Interpenetration and extension of findings and rules of other (experimental) sciences into epistemology and humanities context, and also unification of rules of neural, technological and social networks, could be mentioned as the signs of reductionism in connective knowledge. Materialistic view to knowledge is another critique from Islamic epistemology. In spite of various critiques, there are several common points between Islamic and connective epistemology, such as belief in ontological objectivity and proximate knowledge.