Philosophical Study on Two Contemporary Muslim Scholar's Views on Modern Science in Islam with Regard to Functionalism and Symbolism

During middle ages when the West was sunken in darkness and superstitions, Islamic world was at its highest point of flourishing. From the thirteenth century onwards, however, science was exposed to decline among Muslims. In sixteenth century when the west was in scientific progress, the East was eager to be equipped with sciences; the West used the eagerness of the East and, regardless of the culture of eastern traditional society transferred its scientific findings to it. Not so late, the eastern found that science may not be neutral and even it has been of negative effects on the western society such as alienation. Again, the westerns` culture was different from the easterns`. Such a new attention to the cultural consequences of western sciences led to different positions among Muslim scholars. Some knew modern science as something opposing to Islam, some agreed with modern science, some other sought to make Islam as modern science demands and some tried to put modern science in the depth of Islamic view of the world. This paper is a research on functionalism and symbolism taken respectively by seyyed Hosein Nasr and Ziaoddin Sardar.