The Methodology of the Cognitive Framework of Hassan Hanafi

Hassan Hanafi is an Egyptian thinker who writes on philosophy, religion, modernity, culture and politics. His thought has had far reaching repercussions in the Muslim world and hence must be carefully considered. With a view to evaluate his cognitive framework, the present study makes use of the basic or fundamental method of research. The fundamental method looks at theories and ideas from a new perspective so as to be able to judge them logically. Hence first the non-cognitive factors of theory formation are looked at, and then the cognitive factors, such as the epistemological, ontological, and anthropological bases, are scrutinized. Hanafi was influenced by figures such as Sayyid Qutb and the German philosopher Edmund Husserl. As such, he tries to amalgamate utilitarianism and pragmatism under phenomenalism so as to reinterpret and reconstruct the Islamic heritage. With regards to non-intellectual factors, Hanafi is greatly inspired by the Egyptian milieu and some of the central themes of his discourse revolve around concepts such as “heritage” and “modernity.” To overcome the present crisis of Arab society, he employs Husserl’s strategy and first rejects the thought of fundamentalists and free-thinkers, he then reconstructs the status quo according to phenomenalism