Discourse On The Quantification Of The Philosophy Of The Arabic And European Minds

This paper shows the aspect of historical philosophers in the Arab and Persan worlds. Back to the history, an approach that El-Saghir reevaluates the Philosophers mind by mathematical formulas reading the impact of the Arabic Fundamentalism on the peace process in the middle east.

By Hassan El-Saghir,P.E; M.Eng(Env.)

PART I: ARAB PHILOSOPHERS

1.Introduction

Islamic philosophy may be defined in a number of different ways, but the perspective taken here is that it represents the style of philosophy produced within the framework of Islamic culture. This description does not suggest that it is necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor even that it is exclusively produced by Muslims.

Islamic philosophy is defined as the branch of Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between philosophy (reason) and the religious teachings of Islam (faith) [Painting of the School of Athens by Raphael (Illustration of the philosophers in Greece)]

By Hassan El-Saghir,P.E; M.Eng(Env.)FONDATION DE POLYTECHNIQUE – MONTREAL

http://www.fondation.polymtl.ca/

1.1Definition
The attempt to fuse religion and philosophy is difficult because there are no clear preconditions. Philosophers typically hold that one must accept the possibility of truth from any source and follow the argument wherever it leads.?
On the other hand, classical religious believers have a set of religious principles that they hold to be unchallengeable fact.?
Given these divergent goals and views, some hold that one cannot simultaneously be a philosopher and a true adherent of Islam, which is believed to be a revealed religion by its adherents. In this view, all attempts at synthesis ultimately fail.? However, others believe that a synthesis between Islam and philosophy is possible. One way to find a synthesis is to use philosophical arguments to prove that one’s preset religious principles are true. This is a common technique found in the writings of many religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but this is not generally accepted as true philosophy by philosophers. Another way to find a synthesis is to abstain from holding as true any religious principles of one’s faith at all, unless one independently comes to those conclusions from a philosophical analysis.

However, this is not generally accepted as being faithful to one’s religion by adherents of that religion. A third, rarer and more difficult path is to apply analytical philosophy to one’s own religion. In this case a religious person would also be a philosopher, by asking questions such as:
*What is the nature of God? How do we know that God exists
*What is the nature of revelation?? How do we know that God reveals his will to mankind
*What is the nature of divinely guided Messengers vis A vis philosophers?
*What is the nature of ”Imamat” or vicegerency of humans on earth?
*Which of our religious traditions must be interpreted literally?
*Which of our religious traditions must be interpreted allegorically?
*What must one actually believe to be considered a true adherent of our religion
*How can one reconcile the findings of philosophy with religion?
*How can one reconcile the findings of science with religion?*How can one reconcile the findings of math with religion????

1.2 Formative influences

Islamic philosophy as the name implies refers to philosophical activity within the Islamic milieu. The main sources of classical or early Islamic philosophy are the religion of Islam itself (especially ideas derived and interpreted from Quran), Greek philosophy which the early Muslims inherited as a result of conquests when Alexandria, Syria and Academy of Jundishapur came under Muslim rule, along with pre-Islamic Iranian philosophy and Indian philosophy. Many of the early philosophical debates centered around reconciling religion and reason, the latter exemplified by Greek philosophy.?
1.3Early and Classical Islamic philosophy ?In early Islamic thought two main currents may be distinguished. The first is Kalam, that mainly dealt with theological questions, and the other is Islamic Falsafa, that was founded on the reception of Greek thought.?

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1.3.1Kalam?
Independent minds exploiting the methods of ijtihad sought to investigate the doctrines of the Qur’an, which until then had been accepted in faith on the authority of divine revelation. One of first debates was that between partisan of the ”Qadar” (Arabic language: ”qadara”, to have power), who affirmed free will, and the ”Jabarites” (jabar, force, constraint), who maintained the belief in fatalism. ?At the second century of the Hijri year, a new movement arose in the theological Iraq. A pupil, Wasil ibn Ata, who was expelled from the school because his answers were contrary to then orthodox Islamic tradition and became leader of a new school, and systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites. This new school was called ”Mutazilite” (from i’tazala, to separate oneself, to dissent). Its principal dogmas were three: God is an absolute unity, and no attribute can be ascribed to Him.Man is a free agent. It is on account of these two principles that the Mu’tazilites designate themselves the “Partisans of Justice and Unity”.All knowledge necessary for the salvation of man emanates from his reason; humans could acquire knowledge before, as well as after, Revelation, by the sole light of reason. This fact makes knowledge obligatory upon all men, at all times, and in all places.?The Mutazilites, compelled to defend their principles against the orthodox Islam of their day, looked for support in philosophy, and are one of the first to pursue a rational theology called ”Ilm-al-Kalam” (Scholasticism|Scholastic theology); those professing it were called ”Mutakallamin”. This appellation became the common name for all seeking philosophical demonstration in confirmation of religious principles. The first Mutakallamin had to debate both the orthodox and the non-Muslims, and they may be described as occupying the middle ground between those two parties. But subsequent generations were to large extent critical towards the Mutazilite school, especially after formation of the Asharite concepts.

1.3.2 Falsafa?
From the ninth century onward, owing to Caliph al-Ma’mun and his successor, Greek philosophy was introduced among the Persians and Arabs, and the Peripatetic school began to find able representatives among them; such were Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Ibn Rushd (Averroas), all of whose fundamental principles were considered as criticized by the Mutakallamin.During the Abbasid caliphate a number of thinkers and scientists, many of them non-Muslims or heretical Muslims, played a role in transmitting Greek, Hindu, and other pre-Islamic knowledge to the Christian West. They contributed to making Aristotle known in Christian Europe. Three speculative thinkers, the two Persians al-Farabi and Avicenna and the Arab Al-Kindi, combined Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam. They were considered by many as highly unorthodox and by some were even described as non-Islamic philosophers. ?From Spain Arabic philosophic literature was translated into Hebrew and Latin, contributing to the development of modern European philosophy. The philosopher Moses Maimonides (a Jew born in Al Andalus i.e.Muslim was also important.1.3.3 Differences between ”Kalam” and ”Falsafa” (more…)1.3.4 Main protagonists of falsafa and their critics ? (more…)1.3.5 Jewish philosophy in the Arab world in the classical period? (more…)

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1.3.7 Post-classical Islamic philosophy (more…)Post-classical Islamic philosophers are usually divided into ”’two main categories”’ according to their affiliation with the ”Sunni” and ”Shia” denominations. Of course, there are many contemporary philosophers and thinkers such as Professor Nasr and Imam Musa Sadr who do not accept the importance of this classification. But there is a consensus that we can categorize this era according to the two main approaches: thinkers who mainly worked within the Shi?a tradition and thinkers who did not. If we accept this division then we can summarize each category as follows (it should be mentioned that this classification has many overlaps, is not very clear and precise).?”’Thinkers not primarily concerned with Shi?a beliefs”’:?Most Important Philosophers:Rashid-al-Din FazlollahQutb-al-din RaziMost Important Theosophers:Fakhr al-Din Razi (d. 1209 ) ?Opponents of PhilosophyIbn Taymiya (d. 1328) and his studentsHistory of PhilosophyZakariya QazwiniIbn Khaldun (d. 1406) Most Prominent Gnostic and Sufi thinkersIbn Arabi (d. 1240) & his SchoolMawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi Jami”’Thinkers primarily concerned with Shi?a beliefs”’:Nasir al-Din Tusi (d.1274) Mulla Sadra (d. 1640) and the Transcendent Philosophy 1.3.8 Social philosophy: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), in his ”Muqaddimah” (the introduction to a seven volume analysis of universal history), advanced social philosophy in formulating theories of social cohesion and social conflict.(more…)??1.3.9 Modern Islamic philosophy

2.1. AL-Kindi, Arab and Moslem Philosopher Al-Kindi (801-873 CE) was the first known Arab philosopher from Al Kufah having founded and worked at the House of Wisdom i.e Beit Al-Hikmah during the ruling of …(more…) 2.1.2.2.6Mechanics.?In the mechanics field of physics, al-Kindi described an early concept of relativity,which some see as a precursor to the later theory of relativity developed by Albert Einstein in the 20th century. Al-Kindi held that the physical world and physical phenomena are relative, which he considered the essence of the law of existence. Though later classical mechanists such as Galileo, Descartes and Isaac Newton considered time, space, motion and bodies to be absolute, Al-Kindi held that all these properties are relative to each other and not independant or absolute, and he considered them to be relative to other objects and to the observer, like Einstein.?(more…)2.1.3 Quantification of Al-Kindi Mind?Therefore we have:? Al- Kindi Mind = 10% x 100 FromV.G.Philo. + 10% x 100 To V.A.Philo.?????????????????????????
+ ?30% x 100 FromV.G.Math. + 30% x 100 To V.A.Math.???

In this section which is original in its approach compared to the previous from cited literature, I am going to quantify approximately Al-Kindi?s mind from what he extracted from the Greeks and what he contributed to the Arab philosophy being part of universe philosophy. I considered only his main works making then an error which will be quantified later on when I will quantify Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina , Al-Gazali and Ibn Rushud.? Such a tremendous work will lead to many equations best to be truncated to four, six or eight items with the errors to be determined latter on.In my new approach, I am setting the foundations of this theory to be completed latter on by other scientist to quantify the Arabic Mind. As such, this project is a Directive Line Project in the Quantification of the Mind.This quantification will let us evaluate our present status of thought then deduce the future one by quantities depending on what we want to be in this world and what is our projected contribution to humanity.Much of the Arabic works till present time was concentrated on building the infrastructures of there countries with less efforts to build the superstructures of those nations i.e. the Minds of there People.The Arab countries are not an exception in this respect, since more developed countries lack also such an approach. Of course, a sample statistics of 500 to 1000 Arabian thinkers and scientists to fill a questionnaire similar to my approach will enable us to draw average values, standard deviations and correlation figures.With such equations, I can include them in Mathematical Matrix forms then, latter on perform estimates. The computer is the best help in this respect following the establishment of the algorithms and then the estimates.?The following is the equation of Al-Kindi Mind developed by myself

Al-Kindi Mind = X% x From Greek Phil. + Y% x To Arab Phil.+ Z% x From Greek Math + W% x To Arab Math.?Greek Philosophy i.e. G.Philo.

Is the Mass of such entity originally in Greeks to be considered as 100 Value Greek Philosophy, in short 100 V.G.Philo.This prime 100 V.G.Philo. value will be established latter based on some Greeks IQ or intelligence density coefficients or in accordance to other civilizations before or after.When this is done, I can quantify the Arabic Mind during 400 years of Abbasid rulings in Baghdad then 300 years in Egypt and Andalusia, then latter on during the Arabic revival age following 400 years of Ottomans dark ages i.e. at the beginning of 20^th century with the rise of Arab Nationalism, then subsequently during these last 50 years of development because of Petroleum and Energy Resources.? This will enable us to know the Arabic Mind Value per year during the Abbasids, then during the Renaissance Age then now a day so to know exactly at what time we are compared to developed nations… Later on, I will carry an approximate analysis to the French or the European Mind which ever is possible, since French History and Literature are among my specialties.By relating both the Arab Mind and French or European Mind to a common Greek Mind, we can relate directly the Arab Mind to the French or European Mind by eliminating the common factor to both of them, being the Greek Mind.Consequently to that, we can compare the Middle Eastern Arabic Mind to the European or French Mind accurately, to know how much years we are lagging from them, and what the remedies to that situation are.

At last, the Spiritual Value i.e. Material Value of the Mind can be related to the Dollar Value i.e. Material Value by certain equations to be determined in order to quantify correctly the Human Mind.?

X% to Al-Kindi philosopher can be 5% to 15% with av.10% since later on Al-Farabi and Ibn-Sina have taken more from Greek Philosophers.
Arab Phil. = 100 Value Arab Philosopher
i.e. 100 V.A.Philo.Y%= 5%-15% i.e. av. 10%Y%= 20%-40% i.e. av. 30%W% = 20-40% i.e. av.30% since Al-Kindi was a pioneer in the science of Cryptanalysis.??Mathematics being 100 Value Arab Math i.e. 100 V.A.Math. vs. 100 V.G.Math.

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2.2 The Arab and Moslem Philosopher ??Al-Farabi???
Abu Nasr al-Farabi (872?951 CE) also known in the West as Alpharabius, Al-Farabi, Farabi, and Abunaser is considered to have been a great scientist and philosopher in the history of Persia and the Islamic World. (more…)

2.2.3 Quantification of Al-Farabi Mind?
Al-Farabi was mainly involved with Metaphysics, Epistemology and Ethics with little mathematics, hence the following equation to describe his mind:???

Al-Farabi Mind = 25% x 100 FromV.G.Philo. + 35% x 100 To V.A.Philo.??+ 5% x 100 FromV.G.Math. +10% x 100 To V.A.Math.???

2.3.The Arab and Moslem Philosopher Ibn Sina(more…)

2.3.2.2.5Criticism.? Ibn Sina’s heterodox beliefs, namely his belief that bodily resurrection was impossible, placed him at odds with traditionalist muslim scholars of his time. This departure from orthodox thought led the celebrated and prominent Muslim Scholar Al-Ghazzali to declare Ibn Sina a disbeliever to Islam, and hold it ”fard” to consider him a ”Kafir”?(more…)

Ibn Sina Mind =??25% x 100 FromV.G.Philo. + 20% x 100 To V.A.Philo. + 25% x 100 FromV.G.Med. + 75% x 100 To V.A.Med.+ 20% x 100 From V.G.Phy.&Astr. + 20% x 100 To V.A.Phy.&Astr.???

2.4 The Arab and Moslem Philosopher Al-Gazali??(more…)?

Al-Gazali Mind = ?15% x 100 FromV.G.P + 15% x 100 To V.A.P?+ 10% x 100 FromV.G.Theol.&Sufism + 40% x 100 To V.A.Theol.&Sufism?????????

2.5The Arab and Moslem Philosopher Ibn Rushd?(more…)

Quantification of Ibn Rushd Mind?Ibn Rushd Mind = 25% x 100 FromV.G.P + 20% x 100 To V.A.P
+5% x 100 FromV.G.Med. + 25% x 100 To V.A.Med.?+ 25% x 100 From V.G.Psych. + 50% x 100 to V.A.Psych.?+ 10% x 100 From V.G.Phy.&Astr.?+ 10% x 100 To V.A.Phy.&Astr.?

3. Other Arab and Moslem Philosophers and Scientists
If we work further the Quantification of the Arab and Moslem Philosophers Mind to include those in paragraphs 1.3.5 till1.3.9, we will get more equations and hence a better estimation of the Arab Philosopher Mind.The further Quantification of the Arab Scientists Minds will give rise to more and more equations reducing the error margin in our results.The gross error i.e. Error(Gross) in our estimate is the sum of the error due to covering of the whole ?Arab and Moslem Philosophers, Scientists and Artists i.e. Error(Coverage) plus the error due to estimation i.e. Error(Estimate) because of lack of statistics.? Hence the equation :Error(Gross) = Error(Coverage) + Error(Estimate)?The Error(Coverage) becomes more precise as we quantify the minds of additional Moslem and Arab Philosophers as Rashid-Al-Din Fazlollah, Qutb-Al-din Razi, Fakhr Al-Din Razi, Zakariya Qazwini, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Arabi, Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, Jami, Nasir al-Din Tusi, Mulla Sadra, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Seyyed Hossein Nasr,Imran Nazar Hosein, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas. The Arab jewish Philosophers were: Saadia Gaon, Ibn Tibbons, Narboni, Gersonides, Maimonides, Joseph Ibn Aknin.This same Error(Coverage) becomes more precise as we quantify the minds of Moslem and Arab scientists as Ibn Al-Haytham, Jabir Ibn Hayyan, Al-Biruni, Al-Khwarizmi, Jabir Ibn Aflah, Al-Farghani, Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi, Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi, Al-Quazvini, Al-Razi, Al-Karaji, Omar Khayy?m, Ibn Shakir, Ibn Qurra Al-Harrani, Ibn Al-Nafis, Ibn Sahl, Ibn Khaldun, Al-Jahiz, Ibn Miskawayh, Etc? The Error(Estimate) becomes more and more accurate as we perform a statistics among 500 contemporary philosophers and scientists to quantify the minds of selected Arab and Moslem philosophers and scientists in the same manners as I performed in this paper.
The various equations of the quantification of philosophers minds thus obtained can be put in Matrix form as shown below:

[Philosopher Mind] = [Transformation Matrix] x [Attribute Description] [Philosopher Mind] is a column matrix bearing the name of the Arab or Moslem Philosopher. [Transformation Matrix] is a square matrix bearing % values of the attribute i.e. the % X,Y,Z,W in the quantification of the Kindi Mind.
[Attribute Description] is a column matrix bearing the attribute description i.e.Greek or Arab Philosophy, Mathematics, Sciences, Psychology, Etc?

4. Discussion of the Results
The sample of the five philosophers that I selected has only Al-Kindi being born in Iraq and hence considered as a fully Arab philosopher by some sources while the others as Ibn Sina, Al-Farabi and Al-Gazali were considered Persian philosophers and Moslem in general. Ibn Rushd was considered an Andalusian-Arab philosopher. My personal view is that all those are Arab philosophers since they worked in Arabic countries or countries under Arab influence at the time of the Golden Arabic Ages. They were financed and encouraged by Arabic Caliphates mainly those of Abbasids. Most of there writings were in Arabic or Persian. Such people could have not produced those tremendous writings if they stayed in there home countries at that time. This item of quantification of the Arab Philosopher Mind characterizes fully the foundation pole of Arab Nationalism termed Arabic Cultural Heritage in my first series of papers on the Systemic Approach to the Peace process in the Middle East on the MOREPISTS PRESS web site.I affected a load percentage of 25% to it which is considerable in my mathematical model approach to Arab Nationalism. This pole counterbalances the effect of the Moslem Fundamentalism since historically, there was a debate between the philosophical ideas brought forwarded by Ibn Sina concerning the soul and those of Moslem Theologists.
Arab Philosophers believed that the soul of the intellect returns to God contrary to the belief of the Moslem Theologists who believed that only the soul of the faithful person who strictly adheres to Islam Teachings is rewarded theParadise. This view makes Arab Nationalism a movement capable to bind the different religions in the Arabic countries together as well as other social fractions of the system within the Middle East.
The fundamentalist movement fails in this respect and results in a fractionated society that leads to the collapse of a country presenting multiple religion groups as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt.
Those countries surround the State of Israel and their disintegration into fundamentalist countries result in the collapse of the whole Peace Process and even to the already established with Egypt and Jordan. In addition, the coming into power of a fundamentalist regime in Syria can jeopardize the Hashemite Throne in Jordan. The reason is that once those Moslem Fundamentalists take the power in Syria, they will tend to export there ruling to adjacent countries in order to consolidate their power inside and outside their frontiers. Another reason is the past experience with the dethroning of Monarchies in the Arabic Countries, once it starts in one, the spark of the revolution moved to the adjacent one and so on to the next one.

A look at the Arabic countries in green color on this sketch map reveals that they are the main doors to the European continent bordering the latter from the East and South?The fundamentalist streams originating in Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran were weakened and blended with Arab Nationalism through their penetration of those Arabic countries as Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Arabian Peninsula and Egypt. The collapse of the Iraq Baath Party gave rise to a striking rise in Moslem Fundamentalism in that country. Therefore Iraq is no longer acting as an Arab Nationalist barrier to the fundamentalist currents coming from Iran, and Afghanistan.
Syria is still an Arab Nationalist barrier up till now, the same with Jordan, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula and to a lesser and minor? extent, Lebanon. Therefore all fundamentalist currents fromAsia are attenuated by those countries in addition to the Turkey of Ataturk.On the southern part of the Arabic countries in the African continent, Moslem fundamentalist currents originating from the Senegal, Tchad, Kenya, Nigeria and others, are being attenuated by Arab Nationalist currents in those countries like Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Liberia…The failure of those Arabic countries to act as barriers to the rise of fundamentalism in Africa jeopardizes the social situation in Western European countries like Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

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Arab Nationalism that some people describe as an old and obsolete tradition and movement should be taken seriously by Western European countries. One of its four poles being Arabic Cultural Heritage should be enhanced by more research and publications on the Arabic Nationalism

References: Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia

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