Origins of Western Social Sciences

For a collection of related articles on Western Social Science, see LINK

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 9-22, 2009:

This paper argues that Social Science in the West emerged after bloody and violent religious battles convinced Europeans that religion was not a good basis on which to structure society. Then they sought to create economic, social and political systems on a secular basis, without any reference to religious principles. In a secular society, it was necessary to allow maximum freedom to all possible sects, and so freedom became a cherished value. This freedom was translated into all realms of human action, and resulted in principles contrary to both Christian and Islamic ethics. Thus rejection of religion is built into certain fundamental principles widely accepted in modern social science.

This restructuring of thought about humans and societies eventually led to the idea that the universe is meaningless and our existence is meaningless. This premise is accepted without discussion in modern societies. The fact that is a philosophy of dark despair has been poignantly pointed out by leading atheist, Bertrand Russell:

Man, his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation be safely built.

TITLE:

Origins of Western Social Science

JOURNAL:

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance

DATE OF PUBLICATION:

2009

ABSTRACT:

On the whole, Muslims have accepted Western claims that both social sciences and physical sciences are equally fact and logic based, and “positive” descriptions of reality. In fact, Western formulations of social sciences hide ethical and social commitments to secular views which conflict the Islamic views. Widespread acceptance by Muslims of these false claims to factuality and objectivity has prevented the development of genuine Islamic alternatives, and has been a serious obstacle to progress in the project of “Islamization of Knowledge”. The goal of this paper is to examine the origins of Western Social Science, and to show how it is based on secular preconceptions antithetical to Islam.

REFERENCE:

Zaman, Asad, “Origins of Western Social Science” Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, vol 5, number 2, 2009

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