CRITICISMS ON ONTOLOGICAL RELATIVISM OF MODERN SCIENCE BY SYED MUHAMMAD NAQUIB AL-ATTAS AND SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR

Abstract

Postmodern approaches to science introduce various methods, and
result in multiple explanations and competing theories. This has
exacerbated the science war in philosophy of science. The ongoing
disputes known as ‘science war’ is a consequence of ontological
disputes within the philosophical branch of metaphysics. Even
though science had denied the importance of metaphysics in its
practice, this paper argues that the recognition of philosophy
specifically that in regards to metaphysics is a solution to the
confusion arising from relativism of knowledge. As part of a
preliminary attempt to confront this problem, this paper focuses on
the criticisms of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas and Seyyed
Hossein Nasr on the ontology of modern science, which issues from
the denial of metaphysics by modern scientists. Their views on
ontology are part of both scholars’ Islamic philosophy of science.
This is a qualitative research based on historical, doctrinal and
comparative analysis of the primary works by the two scholars. The
arguments are presented within the scope of philosophy of science
based on the framework of the Islamic intellectual tradition. Thus, we
find that a wider and transcendental epistemology is possible for
understanding the multiple levels of reality subsumed within the
metaphysics of Islam, which opens the door to reality and truth.