ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Sociology of the Qur'an Part Ii Scientific History To begin with, I would like to remind that scientific history is to in the light of the view discussed earlier that the society has a reality ,and personality independent of the individual.

If society does- not have a reality independent of its members, there may not be any laws except those governing individuals,' and, consequently, scientific history, which is the science of the laws and principles that govern societies, would be pointless. That history is governed by laws is a necessary corollary of the proposition that history has its own nature, which again follows from the proposition that society has its own nature and reality.

In the context of scientific history, the following problems should be studied. As has been pointed out earlier, scientific history is based on traditional history. Traditional history provides the material for the laboratory of scientific history. Hence, firstly, it should be thoroughly investigated whether the contents of traditional history are authentic and reliable.

If the material is not reliable, all research and scientific inference regarding the laws governing the societies of the past would be futile and pointless.

If we proceed with the supposition that traditional history is reliable, and that society has an essence and personality independent of individuals, then deduction of general laws from historical events and episodes would depend upon the hypothesis that the law of causation, or causal determinism, governs the sphere of human activities-that is the sphere of problems associated with human freedom and will, which are expressed in historical events.

Without accepting it; the laws of history can neither be generalized or universalized, nor can there be any orderly system of such laws. The question is whether the law of causation governs the course of history, and if it does, what are we to think of human freedom and responsibility? Is history materialistic in nature and governed by materialistic forces? Is the principal force dominating human history a material force?

Are intellectual and spiritual forces secondary, subordinate, and dependent upon the material forces that shape history? Contrarily, is it true that history is essentially spiritual,and the dominating force of history a spiritual force, the material forces being secondary, subsidiary, and subservient to it?