Evolutionary epistemology and ethical social choice in the islamic perspective

pp. 56-75

in: Masudul Alam Choudhury, Studies in islamic science and polity, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1998

Abstract

The main objective of this chapter is to establish a knowledge-based social choice and social welfare function for the Islamic politico-economic order, wherein an altogether different concept of knowledge from that perceived in Western epistemology is invoked. In our progress towards this the precept of the unicity (oneness) of God (Tawhid in Islamic literature) will be thoroughly utilised. More conceptually, the unicity precept is taken up in this chapter to bestow meaning on the socio-scientific order. The emphasis is on unicity as God's oneness and spontaneously creative essence in the universe. The essence of unity is further substantiated through the world view of unification between the sciences of society and nature, and within different segments of society.