فصلنامه راهبرد فرهنگ
پیاپی 6 (تابستان 1388)

Some features of Islamic science are related to the objective of scientist, function of science or the culture of the scientific community. However, the main objective of the present paper is to explain a feature, which is related to the structure of scientific knowledge. The main claim of the present paper is:1. Science is divided into two branches of metaphysics and particular science. 2. Metaphysics has a determinative and identification role for other sciences.3. Metaphysics is divided into monotheistic and non-monotheistic branches. Religions have different levels and degrees. Monotheism is the central truth of religions, which are generally called Islam, and hence whenever science is based on monotheistic metaphysics it gains a religious and Islamic identity. Attempts have been made in the present paper also to discuss some of the epistemological principles of Islamic science such as revelation and intuition and elaborated their relations with reason and sense. Also virtue and self-purification have been mentioned as two methods for intuitional knowledge.

Different epistemologies imply different definitions of science and hence each definition of science has its cultural, historical and social implications and requirements. Therefore, Islamic culture and civilization is compatible with a specific meaning of science which may be called Islamic or religiousscience. Islamic or religious science has been interpreted differently. In some of thedefinitions, religious science refers to a narrative science vis-à-vis rational science, while in other definitions religious science is the common product of reason and narration. While discussing different meanings of religious science, attempts have been made in the present paper to discuss religious science from the viewpoint of Islamic philosophy including the Aristotelian, intuitive and transcendental philosophies and also to explain some of its methodological features.

Discussion about issues such as meaning, possibility, desirability, nature and necessity of religious science has for some time turned into a challenging issue in our society. Probably the most important problem is lack of transparency of a number of principles of scientology and theology in this regard. For instance, some opponents of religious science reject the possibility of religious science because they maintain that science by nature is based on empirical method. On the other hand, some advocates of religious science rely on such philosophical principles that introduce science mainly as a cultural issue rather than an epistemological issue. This approach unknowingly pushes them towards relativism. Also some time religion is confined to the values or to the narrative texts. Through relying on some principles of Islamic philosophy, logic and principles of jurisprudence and also by an outlook based on issues related to philosophy of science and philosophy of religion, attempts have been made in the present paper to offer an explanation of a kind of interaction between science and religion whose result will be transformation of the existing science and emergence of a science which is as much attributed to “science” as it is described as “religious”. Thus, in the first place, the nature of science has been explained and the genuine concept of science (discovery of reality) has been defended against the modern and postmodern concepts of science. In the next place the concept of being “religious” has been analyzed and finally a definition of religious science has been offered in which the epistemological status of science is preserved and its principles, ultimate goals and content are desirably religious.

The present paper is a theoretical analysis about the possibility of change in the field and direction of future conflicts from competition between religions to jointefforts of religions to confront the main processes in the contemporary world. In the present paper a specific definition of religion is emphasized which, on the one hand, is capable of demonstrating concordance among religions despite their diversity, and on the other, unites them in confronting modernity and its processes like modernization, secularization and globalization. Although the present paper is an analytical-theoretical study, it has a positive approach toward religion and some normative points for the religious people as well.

The encounter of modernity with religion has caused the growth and development of the field of religious studies, opening new vistas for the understanding and study of religion in the light of new requirements of life and modern science. Experience-based science claimed to be capable of knowing religion, while basically religious issue went beyond experience. Likewise, scholar/experimental scientist, who was limited to means of empirical reason, had to explain the trans-empirical religious issue by relying on limited means of empirical/experimental understanding. Thus, different scientific approaches to religion have offered varied and at times contradictory understandings of religion and its related issues. Among these issues, one may mention the problem of the truth of religion and the status of researcher of religion. Phenomenology, as a philosophical school of thought, which opens a new prospect for discussing the relationship between modern science and religion, provides different answers to the problems of this field that have attracted the attention of phenomenologists of religion. Phenomenology has two main orientation: classical phenomenology; and hermeneutical phenomenology. Attempts have been made in the present paper to discuss the foundations and principles of phenomenology and its types and also to explain the response of classical phenomenology of religion, based on the viewpoints of Edmond Husserl, to the two abovementioned issues in the field of religion.

The cosmological findings of Nicolas Copernicus in sixteenth century marked the beginning of conflict between religion and science in the Christian West, but with the spread of modern science across the globe the relationship between science and religion has emerged in new and diverse formulations. In the first place, the present paper discusses the history of conflicts between science and religion. This issue began with astronomy and cosmology in thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries and in the eighteenth century the Newtonian physics demonstrated its depth more than ever. The nineteenth century is the period of biology and the notion of evolution that turned the conflict between science and religion into its severest form. In the twentieth century, on the one hand, the old philosophical propositions in the formulation of relationship between science and religion were doubted and, on the other, scientific findings, particularly in quantum physics, moderated the certainty of conflict between sci- ence and religion. The spread of modern science engaged the world of Islam in the new form of this conflict. After a historical review of these issues, attempts have been made in the present article to complete and document the typology of John F. Haught (1995) presented in his book, “Science and Religion: From Conflict to Conversation”. In this book Haught discusses the relationship between science and religion in four types, that is, conflict, distinction, completion and affirmation. Also a new approach in which science is linked to social action will be discussed in the present paper.

Basically, the subject of religious science has its roots in the fundamental issue of equilibrium between reason and revelation. In other words, it refers to equilibrium between religious cognition, on the one hand, and non-religious cognition (including experiment, reasoning and understanding) on the other. On the basis of this understanding of religious science, from the first century of the advent of Islam great efforts have been made to produce religious science (or determine the equilibrium between religious cognition and non-religious cognition), which was based on a distinct incentive: termination of prophecy. Reviewing the types of encounter of Muslims thinkers with the subject of non-religious cognition and determination of its relation with religious cognition, one may distinguish these three approaches: First approach: In this approach, there is no contradiction theoretically (with regard to science) and practically (with regard to ethics) between non-religious cognition as manifested in the Copernican picture of modern science, on the one hand, and the religious cognition offered by Islam, on the other. Under the circumstance of termination of prophecy, this approach considers cognition through modern science useful and in line with Islam’s appreciation of reason. Both old and new scholars can be categorized in this approach. Abdulrahman Ibn Khaldun is one of them, whose viewpoints will be discussed in this paper. Second approach: This is the main and predominant approach, which is identified with Seyed Jamaluddin Asadabadi, particularly after the encounter of Muslims with modern social institutions in Europe and emergence of the revivalist ideas among the Muslims. While considering the modern science and reason, as the continuance of Islamic appreciation of reason, this approach seriously criticizes the western ethics and culture. The third approach: This approach challenges the method of modern science from the viewpoint of worldview and theory as well as from the perspective of practice and ethic. Muhammad Iqbal Lahori’s viewpoints are discussed for this approach.