The world of science is not the world of speeches and...

The world of science is not the world of speeches and addresses-science is a conscious effort to discover the relationship of objects, and for this reason, scientific discourse does not transcend the level of man's self-consciousness. But the world of art and the world of religion are the world of addressing. We are addressed by a work of art, and in religion, words of God address man.

That is why the languages of mysticism and religion are linked together by genuine and profound ties, and why the earliest specimens of art that have been created by man are also specimens of Sacred Art. Man is addressed again and again in the Bible and in the Holy Qur’an, and it is with this call that the individual human being is elevated and becomes a person. Etymologically speaking, the word 'person' is related to persona, the mask that actors would put on their face in the theatre.

But= the important point here is that in the concept of religious address, when man is being addressed by God on a general and universal level, and not in specific terms of religious teaching and codes of conduct, none of his psychological, social or historical aspects are really being addressed. What is addressed is man's true, non-historic and individual nature, and that is why all the divine religions are not quintessentially different.

The differences arise from religious laws and codes of conduct that govern the social and judicial life of human beings. Now we must ask ourselves who is this person that is being addressed. From the earliest times, philosophers have devoted a major part of their time and energy to answering this question. They have tried to explain how, and in what manner we may get to know man, to know him inside out, in absolute terms.

The question of how one can get to know him or her; and reach the goal of self-knowledge, constitutes a major part of this philosophical quest. Recounting the fascinating story of philosophical anthropology, and the episodes dealing with self-knowledge and self-discovery, would take several long nights in the thousand and One Nights of the history of philosophy. Some of these tales were first told in the East and some originated in the West.

It is significant to note that the Eastern tales explain the Oriental side of man's being while the Western tales reveal the properties of his Occidental side. Man is in fact the meeting point of the soul's East and the reason's West.