Horizons of Thought
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Spring & Summer 2016

What most philosophical socialists claim, can be translated into philosophical language in term of considering individuals as the “matter” and society as the “form”, which result in a factual complex, called society. Therefore, they regard society as enjoying an objective existence and a real unity. This article studies arguments for the objectivity of society from collective spirit, objectivity of social phenomenon, social determinism, and society’s resistance in the face of change despite our will, and criticizes them as flawed. It shows that all such arguments only prove a reciprocal influence between different individuals living in a society, and not an objective and independent existence for society. The author extends the critique to the idea of man having two “selves”: natural and collective, by reminding the simplicity and unity of the human soul.

“Skepticism” supposes uncertainty to be the unavoidable destiny of human being. Some roots of modern skepticism can be found in the teachings of the Old Testament, as well as the falsification of some of the teachings of the Bible by rational arguments and scientific discoveries, and some political evolutions in Europe from 14th to 16th centuries, later called “Renaissance”. They led to a belief in the opposition between religion and science and between reason and revelation. By losing confidence in intellect and sense perception, a new tide of modern skepticism and relativism revived. Still some others maintained that reality differently manifests itself to different people; therefore, they do not believe in any common factor among human beings. The article argues that Islam, as a school of thought and practice, provides us with a special view of the world, and introduces a specific goal for the creation of the world and the human being. According to Islam, the final aim of human creation is to reach one’s voluntary perfection and beatitude, which is based on knowledge. Islam has a great respect for reason and reserves a high position for intellect, while taking its limitations into consideration too.

Through Axiology as a consistent procedure of both comprehending the nature of value and measuring and/or estimating the entire assortment of values, including intrinsic values and extrinsic ones, we would be competent to weigh up the level of accuracy and authenticity of the Islamic values implanted in the Social and Humanistic Sciences designated to be as the Islamic Humanities. By applying this scientific method, we would consider certain branches of Human sciences, such as Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, within the framework of Islamic values, to estimate their adjustment with the whole system, as well as their validity of being entitled as an Islamic Human Science.

The basic question of a theory of knowledge: In which authentic way may we know the world? Is this way a sensual/experimental way, an intellectual one, or an intuitive way, or is it a combination of two of these or a joining together of all of them? The positivist and empiricist philosophers have chosen the first option, peripatetic and the realist philosophers went to the second one, illuminationist philosophers and mystics accepted the third way, and the followers of the transcendental philosophy of Mulla Sadra suggested the last answer.
In order to elucidate the real significance of this issue as a basic problem in the philosophy of religion and the position of Islamic philosophy in this regard, I will briefly explain, in this paper, the definition of knowledge from an Islamic philosophical perspective, the possibility of having absolute knowledge, the instruments for acquiring knowledge, the criteria by which we may recognize the true knowledge from the false one on the basis of the foundations of Islamic philosophy. This, in its turn, equips and mobilizes us to realize, understand and have confidence on our understanding of facts, religious realities and truths.

The privilege of human sciences over natural sciences is its unique perspective toward human beings and their surroundings. Most of the theories of human sciences are based on humanistic, secularist and relativistic thinking, all of which emanate from Western ideological principles. These are expanded on an epistemological foundation in which human beings are considered to be limited to material and secular life. The salient secular element in human sciences is based on humanism. In research and enquiries of humanities, there is no reference to innate and prescriptive will and spiritual guidance. Even religion itself is analyzed as a phenomenon relying on society and a product of human reason and a matter under materialistic and humanistic view of human being. This epistemological view turns into individualization of methodology in science on a higher level. This Western epistemological thought and framework will cause skepticism and relativism by separating reason and revelation. This is while through redefining theories of humanities using Islamic ideology and principles based upon Divine instruction, we can assist the development of humanities.

Over the last decades, there has been a debate on the founder of Islamic economics. Researchers have nominated scholars such as Sayyie Abu Ala Maududi (1903-1979), as the father of Islamic economics. The current paper is devoted to the evaluation of such claims. Considering the contributions of Shahid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (1935-1980) to Islamic economics, it is reasonable to conjecture that he deserves to be called the father of Islamic economics. The results of the study show that Sadr deserves such a title because he was the first one to introduce the Islamic economic system in contrast with capitalistic, socialistic and mixed economic systems. He also improved the methodology of Islamic economics by introducing the discovery method.