ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Reason, Physicalism, and Islam ENDNOTES [^1]- E. F. Gautier, Le Passé de l’Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1937) p.[^9]: [^2]- Ibid, 24; and see 96: “He has a western conception of history. … Ibn Khaldu>n’s stay in Andalusia brought a breath of our Renaissance into his oriental mind.” For an incisive critique of Gautier’s agenda, see Yves Lacoste, Ibn Khaldun: The Birth of History and the Past of the Third World, trans. David Macey (London, Verso, 1984) p.76f.

[^3]- Salafi> generally designates Muslims who take the ‘righteous forebears’ (al-salaf al-s}a>lih})—the first-generations of the Prophet Muh}ammad S{, his and their —to be the best model for practice and guidance. Beginning in the late 19th century, a number of loosely related “Salafi> ” reformist movements arose in the Islamic world in response to the challenges of modernity.

Many of their intellectual leaders (Muh}ammad Abduh, Rashi>d Rid}a>) urged Muslims to adopt a wider scope of rationality, particularly by reforming traditional religious education, encouraging them to close the technological and scientific gap with Western European powers. [^4]- For more details, see our article “Jihad Akal” in Utusan Malaysia for 27th July [^2003]: [^5]- These include institutions and organizations receiving government support in countries such as Malaysia, Jordan, and Iran.

To the best of our knowledge, there is no informed assessment of current efforts of this kind among Muslim societies worldwide; this would have to include non-governmental religious and civic initiatives as well, where the situation is not as bleak. [^6]- Initiated in particular by the work of Herbert Feigl, “The ‘Mental’ and the ‘Physical’”, in Feigl, M. Scriven & G.

Maxwell (eds.), ‘Concepts, Theories, and the Mind-Body Problem’, Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science II p.1–540, on 370–497; new ed. as The ‘Mental’ and the ‘Physical’ (Minneapolis, University of Minneapolis Press, 1967). See also Edgar Wilson, The Mental as Physical (London, Routledge, 1979). [^7]- As an instructive example of the materialist physicalistic approach, see Humberto R. Maturana & Francisco J.

Varela, Autopoiesis and Cognition, the Realization of the Living (Dordrecht/Boston/London, D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1980).