Holisitic Approach to Scientific Traditions

There are at least two perspectives which must be taken into consideration when evaluating a scientific tradition; epistemological, because it is the result of an activity of acquiring knowledge, and sociological, because as a tradition it is the outcome of a community of scholars actively involved in acquiring that knowledge. If both of these perspectives are held together in all their aspects, then we shall have a holistic approach in evaluating a scientific tradition. Unfortunately, most explanations offered for the decline of science in the Muslim world neglect both of these perspectives. In this paper I attempt to explain from these perspectives that Islam has a viable relationship with science and secondly, offer my view concerning how these two perspectives solve the problem of revival of science in the Muslim world. Keywords: Islam and science; sociology of science; epistemology of science; scientific community; scientific tradition; science and religion; scientific progress; scientific process; worldview; holistic approach; contextual causes. Introduction A perspective is the position of an investigator who views the subject under investigation from that particular position. As human beings we cannot be "perspectiveless". Since it is also our perspective that provides us with a view to look at things and the fact that we cannot be "perspectiveless", whatever activity we do, we will necessarily put it within that perspective. If our activity is scientific, for example, it will be from our own perspective that is gradually developed through our education, which in turn has a broader perspective of our past educational and scientific perspectives. This broader perspective can be called "scientific tradition" if it involves our scientific past and present. If we define our perspective with clear borders, then we draw a "framework". Depending on the nature of our activity both our perspective and our framework can be abstract or concrete with varying degrees of intensity between these extremes. Since science is a conceptual activity, both perspective and framework will also be conceptual. From this theoretical background we can define a scientific tradition as that accumulation of scientific knowledge and practices, in its civilization, of the scholars and the practitioners of science from the perspective of its worldview but within the framework of its epistemology. On the basis of this definition, Western scientific tradition is, for example, the accumulated scientific knowledge and practices carried out through the epistemology of the Western worldview, together with a set of cultural values and mores that grew out through time among the network of scholars actively engaged in scientific activities in the West. The same is valid for Islamic scientific tradition and all other such traditions. Two factors stand out in this definition: a perspective and an environment. The perspective is necessarily epistemological, and it is, in fact, epistemology of science; whereas the second is sociological that can also be expressed as sociology of science. Both of these factors have many intricate issues and phenomena involved in the complex structure of scientific activities. If we try at least to keep in view all these aspects, issues and phenomena in general then we can develop a holistic attitude in evaluating a scientific tradition. Any other evaluation is to be held only as a scholarly examination of an aspect of such a tradition and nothing more. In this brief attempt we shall try to offer here only certain aspects of the epistemology and the sociology of Islamic scientific tradition. This way we hope that we shall be treating Islamic scientific tradition with the holistic approach as defined above. The Epistemological Framework That mental framework which is followed naturally and/or actively by human activity can be defined as the 'epistemic ground' of that activity. …