Rereading and interpreting the ideas of leading Muslim thinkers
Nematollah Karamollahi
Abstract
This article undertakes a critical rereading of Nasir al-Din Tusi’s conception of civil science, seeking to advance a layered and multidimensional understanding of "the social" through a descriptive-analytical approach. The study reveals that, within Tusi’s philosophical framework, civil ...
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This article undertakes a critical rereading of Nasir al-Din Tusi’s conception of civil science, seeking to advance a layered and multidimensional understanding of "the social" through a descriptive-analytical approach. The study reveals that, within Tusi’s philosophical framework, civil science - categorized under practical wisdom - concerns itself with conscious and voluntary human actions. Depending on the ontological origins of these actions, three distinct modalities of civil science may be identified. When human actions arise from the innate essence and nature of humanity, the resultant epistemological framework constitutes wise civil science, characterized by permanence, a reliance on demonstrative reasoning (burhan), and the production of the foundational stratum of social knowledge. When actions are grounded in the normative authority of prophets and Imams, religious civil science emerges, whose epistemic methodology is based on ijtihad. Alternatively, when human actions are shaped by social conditions and contractual arrangements, the resulting field of inquiry aligns with empirical civil science, which entails a pragmatic engagement with historical realities, the pursuit of collective interests, and the mitigation of harm. According to Tusi’s scientific-cognitive model, "the social" exhibits a dual-layered structure—comprising fixed and mutable dimensions—and social knowledge itself is conceived as a dynamic and processual movement across these layers.
