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Modern Science and the Environmental Crisis: the Traditional Islamic Response of Seyyed Hossein Nasr

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Modern Science and the Environmental Crisis: the Traditional Islamic Response of Seyyed Hossein Nasr MODERN SCIENCE AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: THE TRADITIONAL ISLAMIC RESPONSE OF SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR by TARIK MASUD QUADIR A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology and Religion College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham January 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT In the 1960s, Seyyed Hossein Nasr was the first to articulate in contemporary language the vision of an Islamic environmentalism. Ever since, in a number of articles and interviews Nasr has elaborated his vision further. As the ultimate solution to the environmental crisis, he has persistently argued the need to substitute the prevalent scientific worldview with a religious worldview. However, there has not been any systematic and comprehensive presentation of Nasr’s approach that discusses his ideas in the context of the intellectual currents which have shaped his thought. This thesis attempts to address the gaps in the presentation of Nasr’s religious perspectives on environmentalism. The research has been guided by two questions: 1) what do we need to know to best appreciate Nasr’s vision? And 2) how does Nasr’s vision adhere to traditional Islamic thought? The thesis has demonstrated that Nasr’s arguments are rooted in metaphysical principles of reality , found in the perennial philosophy as well as in traditional Islamic metaphysics, Sufism, philosophy and sciences, as represented by the key authorities of those areas. The thesis hopefully contributes to scholarship in an important dimension of Islamic environmentalism and on the environmental aspects of the relevant intellectual currents. DEDICATION To the memory of my very kind and gentle sister Marufa Rahman who passed away unexpectedly on 10 January 2011. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Though I am fully responsible for the thesis that follows, I am indebted to many who have guided, encouraged and supported me in this project. First of all, I am very grateful to my advisor Dr. Ian Draper who made time against all odds to guide my work and offer most valuable suggestions. Also, I am very grateful to Dr. Haifaa Jawad for her many helpful comments and encouragement. I am most indebted to my mother Shireen Quadir for being the first to instil in me a sense of wonder about the natural world as a grace from God through her recitation of the sūrah ar- Ra ḥman every dawn of my childhood in Jessore, Bangladesh. Also, I would like to thank my brother Iqbal Quadir whose financial support made this study possible. A significant portion of this thesis was written in Konya, Turkey. I am grateful to the people of Konya for their kind hospitality and inspiration, particularly Mawl ānā Jālāl al-Dīn R ūmī (1207-73), whose life and vision inspires me everyday to look at the world with wonder. And last, but certainly not least, I am deeply indebted to my beautiful and brilliant wife Seher Ersoy Quadir, who was a constant source of encouragement, and who very patiently put up with my inability to focus on many household responsibilities. Finally, I must thank my friends Usayd Casewit, Oludamini Ogunaika and Farida Parker for their help in proofreading parts of the thesis. Tarik Quadir Konya January 2011. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 0.1The Environmental Crisis is caused by the Modern Industries...........................................1 0.2 Introduction to Seyyed Hossein Nasr.................................................................................6 0.3 Objective............................................................................................................................10 0.4 Methodology......................................................................................................................11 0.4.1Sources.................................................................................................................15 0.5 Failures of Mainstream Environmentalism........................................................................16 0.6 The Call for Spiritual Values.............................................................................................23 0.7 The Role for Religions and the Significance of Nasr..........................................................25 0.7.1 Nasr Rejects Lynn White, Jr.’s Thesis Against Christianity ..............................29 0.8 Nasr on Technological Solutions.......................................................................................32 0.9 Nasr and the Perennial Philosophy....................................................................................34 0.9.1 Reason, Intellect and Revelation..........................................................................37 0.9.2 Metaphysics, Cosmology and Religious Worldview............................................41 0.10 Nasr and Traditional Islam...............................................................................................45 0.11 Environmentalism in the Muslim World and Nasr ..........................................................52 0.11.1 Criticisms of the Idea of Islamic Environmentalism...........................................58 0.12 The Need for a Sacred Science..........................................................................................64 0.13 Introduction Summary......................................................................................................65 0.14 Notes.................................................................................................................................67 Part I Chapter 1 A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS 1.1 Nature in the Pre-Modern Christian Europe..........................................................................69 1.2 The Root is in Rationalism....................................................................................................71 1.3 The Renaissance Humanism and the emergence of the Promethean Man............................. 73 1.3.1 Baconian Progressivism and the Divorce of Philosophy from Metaphysics...........75 1.4 Scienctific Revolution and the Divorce of Science from Metaphysics....................................80 1.4.1 Newtonian Science Retained the Cartesian Biases..................................................84 1.5 Scientism and Scientific Progressivism during the Enlightenment and Beyond.....................85 1.5.1 Nasr’s Vindication by Economic Historians...........................................................91 1.6 Nasr’s General Recommendations for all Civilizations..........................................................98 1.7 Chapter Summary.................................................................................................................98 Part II Chapter 2 THE PERENNIAL PRINCIPLES AND THE METAPHYSICS OF NATURE WITHIN ISLAM 2.1 The Perennial Principles and the Islamic Tradition..............................................................100 2.2 Metaphysical Exposition of Taw ḥīd and Hierarchy of Reality.............................................103 2.2.1 Ibn ‘Arab ī’s Exposition of the Principle of Taw ḥīd............................................... 105 2.2.1a The Immutable Archetype ( al-a‘y ān al-th ābita ) and Self-disclosure of God (tajall ī)....................................................................................................105 2.2.1b Wa ḥdat al-wuj ūd (Unity of Being) .........................................................108 2.2.1c The Human Being as the Image of God and as the Microcosm.............109 2.2.2 Ibn ‘Arab ī’s Exposition of the Principle of Hierarchy of Reality.......................112 2.3 Chapter Summary.................................................................................................................115 Chapter 3 METAPHYSICS, SUFISM, AND ISLAMIC ETHICS 3.1 Nasr’s Strategies for the Dissemination and Application of the knowledge of Islamic Environmental Ethics.........................................................................................................119 3.2 Religious and Metaphysical doctrines at the Foundation of Islamic Ethics.........................121 3.3 The Metaphysics of the Hierarchy of Reality Provides the Rationale for Shar ī‘ā...............126 3.4 Sufism and the Supremacy of Knowledge by the Heart......................................................129 3.4.1 Dhikr as the Sustenance for Metaphysical Knowledge..........................................134 3.5 Sufi Popularization of Nature’s Wonder.............................................................................138 3.6 Chapter Summary...............................................................................................................140 Chapter 4 THE ADVENT OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESSIVISM AND THE MARGINALIZATION OF SUFISM 4.1 Nasr on the Contemporary Muslim Attitude Towards Modern Science and Technology.......143 4.1.1 Sufism in the Pre-Modern Islamic World.............................................................................146
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