History of Philosophy

If we ignore the accumulated wisdom, insight, and experience of those who lived before us and look only ahead as if we could live by more innovation, we will stagnate. Some might think that how we can be stagnate while all the sciences, technologies and innovations are rapidly developing. Yes, the science, technologies and innovations are rapidly developing but we are stagnating in civilization, because the foundation of every civilization is philosophy.

Before we go any further, let us travel back in time where Greek Philosophers had started the Ancient Greek Civilizations. During Greek Civilizations, philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates are among the people who seek to understand and explain the nature of life and reality. Aspect of metaphysic is the basic questions. They study physics to explain metaphysics. Aristotle has been quoted as saying, “The study of truth requires a study of causes.” The beauty and perfectness of physical world, the miracle of life and creature, the amazing creation of mankind had created an intense outburst of feelings to know who The Creator is, as normal people would feel when they see the painting of Mona Lisa and wonder who the painter is. The movement of the sun, the moon and the stars are calculated, eclipse are studied, life and creature are observed, universe are explored, to understand the Creator, and to understand the meaning of life until the year 323 BC Ancient Greek had reached their highest prosperity and produced amazing civilization.

After the civilization of ancient Greek, rise the Islamic civilizations from the land of Arabs “The 8^th and 9^th century caliphs of Muslim, Harun ar-Rashid and his son Abdullah al-Mamun are especially renowned for their encouragement of intellectual pursuits and for the splendor of their courts. During their reigns scholars were invited to the court to debate various topics, and translations were made from Greek, Persian, and Syriac works.” (Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005). Among the masterpiece that was translated into Arabic is Elementa Stoixia Euklid, Almages Balamius, Conis Sections Appolonius, Intrucdotio Aritmeticae Nikomakhus, Organin Aristotle and Arithmeticae Diofantus. These works are the preliminary of mathematical knowledge in Islamic Civilization. Knowledge from Greek Civilizations had been studied by Muslim scholars such as Al-Kindi, Geber (Jabir ibnu Hayyan) and Al-Khwarizmi. They restructured and filtered the knowledge scientifically, critically and meaningfully in various subjects of physics, chemistry, mathematic, medical, and optic, thus producing the knowledge we now know as science and technology, WITHOUT separating it from metaphysics. Science research is parallel to Islamic teachings of monotheism. The more and deeper Muslim scholars studied and investigated about the miracle and amazing of science and technologies will lead to stronger faith to the Oneness God.

Around AD105, Chinese invented paper. Muslim community started to learn the technology of paper and it became the most important industry in Baghdad during the 9^th century. The earliest paper industry in Europe only started in year 1277 by a factory in Fabriano, Italy. After that, another paper factory was opened in Troyes, France, followed by Nuremberg, German. Paper and printing industrial had opened a new door to Europe to receive knowledge from Islamic Civilization in 15^th century. Agriculture, architecture, sea navigation, chemistry, weapons, and many more technologies were brought to Europe, then, starting the era of European Renaissance. The reality of European Renaissance was brought from Islamic Civilization cannot be erased from history. In agriculture, words like ‘rice’(aruzz), ‘cotton’(qatn), ‘lemon’(laimun), ‘sugar’(sukkar), ‘alfalfa’(alfasfasah) came from Arabic words. The beauty of Islamic architecture in Palace of Alhambra and the Cordoba’s Mosque was spread through all over Europe. The journal of Al-Biruni states that Muslim navigator had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in year 956 proved that Columbus is not the first person to reach America. Even Columbus himself said that he found bearded man who knelt for 5 times prayer a day. The name of Hawaii was originated from Arabic word, Al-Hawa which means ‘nice air breeze’. The terms ‘ether’(athir),  ‘alcohol’(al-kuhl) and ‘alkaline’(al-qali) are also from Arabic words and still being used till today in chemistry. Montgomery Watt, a European writer state that “Because Europe was reacting against Islam, it belittled the influence of Muslims and exaggerated its dependence on its Greek and Roman heritage. So today an important task for us is to correct this false emphasis and to acknowledge fully our debts to the Arabs and Islamic world.” Not only knowledge had influenced European Renaissance but also the concept of metaphysics from Islamic civilizations had caused Paracelsus, Philippus Auroleus, a Swiss physician and chemists to reduce the gap between science and their religion by producing Priest Scientist and Priest Physician. Doctors should have wisdom and ethics are one of the important foundations in medical. Curing patient is not only curing their physical body but also curing their soul.

In 16^th century, Mechanism doctrine in Europe is the beginning of separating science and metaphysics. Supporters of this doctrine like Descartes and Newton still believe in God but they had limited the power of God only in creating, but not controlling the creation. Development of this doctrine had brought scientists far from faith in God. Until 19^th century, a complete separation between the creation of nature and God by Charles Darwin through his modern evolutionary theory had changed the world. Science is only in the aspect of quantitative and being used as proof of the inexistence of God. Without the belief in God, the principle of ‘Survival of the fittest’ and ‘The stronger will defeat the weak’ like hungry lions will tear and eat the antelope had started to spread. With this principle, Hitler of the Germany Nazi and Karl Marx of the Communist had began their political agenda. Portuguese, Dutch, France, England and Spain were competing to conquer the lands from all over the world.

Malaysia is also one of the countries that had been colonized by British and Portuguese. When Malaysia achieved independence in 1957, science curriculum in Malaysia was derived from western doctrine of mechanism and evolutionism which was separated from aspects of spiritual and metaphysics. There are no discussions about metaphysics, even to mention the word ‘God’ is almost impossible in schools and universities during teaching and learning process of science subjects. As a result, the world in 20^th century is full of people without faith in God. The rich did not help the poor, economy had been monopolized, and politics are only to fulfill the lust on oneself and not to fulfill the need of others, teachers in schools have no sincerity in delivering knowledge, students did not feel guilty of cheating during exam, knowledge are not respected, everything had been done for money and luxury, because it has no relation with God.

References:

Mat Rofa Ismail. (2006). Falsafah Sains: Pendekatan Kualitatif. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Microsoft Encarta Reference Library DVD. (2005). Article on Caliph Harun ar-Rashid. Microsoft Corporation.