15-25; and Huston Smith, Forgotten Truth: The Primordial...

15-25; and Huston Smith, Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), especially, pp. 34-[^59]: [^12] Michael Devitt, Realism and Truth, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997), [^2]:nd edition, pp. 13-14. [^13] The distinction between reason and intellect on the one hand, and their unity at a higher level of consciousness on the other, are the two fundamental tenets of the traditional school.

For Nasr's exposition of these terms, see his Knowledge and the Sacred, chapter [^1]: [^14] For Nasr's critique of scientific instrumentalism which is a version of anti-realism, see Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man (ABC International Group, Inc., 1997), pp. 25-[^27]: At this point, it should be mentioned that Glyn Ford's defense of Islamic science, which is based on his interpretation of Nasr, appears to rest on a misreading of Nasr.

Ford defines science as a social construction of natural phenomena mediated by the scientific community and society with no claim to objectivity -- a thesis promulgated, inter alia, by Kuhn and Feyerabend. In this sense, every scientific tradition, modern Western, Islamic or Chinese, is entitled to be science notwithstanding their conflicting claims of truth and validity.

It is not difficult to see the anti-realist component in this assertion: Islamic science is a valid science not because it is based on the scientific study of nature but because it is one of such social constructions that we collectively agree to call 'science'. As I have tried to show here, Nasr does not subscribe to such an anti-realist interpretation of science.

For Ford's argument, see his 'A Framework for a New View of Islamic Science' in 'Adiyat Halab An Annual Devoted to the Study of Arabic Science and Civilization, (Aleppo: The University of Aleppo, 1978-1979), vols. VI-V, pp. 68-74. [^15] In a famous prayer, the Prophet of Islam asks God to 'show him the reality of things as they are in themselves' (arini haqaiq al-ashya kama hiya).

This prayer which has been elaborated upon by many Muslim scholars and philosophers suggests that the ultimate reality and meaning of things can be attained only through the aid of Divine guidance. Placed within a larger context, the same principle applies to the proper understanding of the order of nature. [^16] There is no intrinsic or necessary connection between realism in science and belief in progress.