Best 22 quotes of Pervez Hoodbhoy on MyQuotes

Pervez Hoodbhoy

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    In Waziristan people get really upset when there are no drone attacks. Their apprehension is that the US and Pakistani government might enter in an agreement to halt the attacks.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    About 700 years ago, Islamic civilization almost completely lost the will and ability to do science. Since that time, apart from attempts during the Ottoman period and in Mohammed Ali's Egypt, there have been no significant efforts at recovery. Many Muslims acknowledge, and express profound regret at, this fact. Indeed, this is the major preoccupation of the modernist faction in Islam. But most traditionalists feel no regret - in fact, many welcome this loss because, in their view, keeping a distance from science helps preserve Islam from corrupting, secular influences.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    A nation which has no great philosophers will never have any great scientists. Heidegger says that the philosopher is a man who is always capable of wonder. This also characterizes the scientist. The utilitarian man is not capable of wonder. Hence, it is doubtful whether he can develop science

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    A society oriented towards fatalism, or one in which an interventionist deity forms part of the matrix of causal connections, is bound to produce fewer individuals inclined to probe the unknown with the tools of science.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    But it is only a mature society which can possess intellectual and religious tolerance, and which can provide basic liberties to its citizens.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Even the elites in developing countries know nothing about the development of calculus or electromagnetism and why, without these theoretical tools, the modern products of science would have been impossible. Indeed, appreciation and internalization of science cannot occur without the simultaneous development of a rational, modern and egalitarian system of education.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Fire causes burning, lightning causes thunder, winds cause waves, and gravity causes bodies to fall. Such connections between an effect and its cause form the cornerstone of scientific thinking, both modern and classical. But this notion of causality is one which is specifically rejected by Asharite doctrine, and the most articulate and effective opponent of physical causality was AI-Ghazzali

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    First stage of Islamic scientific development was essentially an assimilation of imported knowledge and Muslim scholars had only a secondary role to play as translators.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Following the ascendancy of the conservative Sunni Caliph al-Mutawakkil, whom Syed Ameer Ali describes as a 'cruel drunken sot in league with the qazis and mullahs,' the physical extermination of Mu'tazilites, together with Shias, began in earnest. They were removed from all governmental positions, accused of heresy, subjected to torture, and summarily executed. Scholars and scientists, most of whom subscribed to rationalist beliefs, fled Baghdad for other parts of the Islamic world. Thus ended the most serious attempt to combine reason with revelation in Islam. Apart from various isolated efforts by individua119th century Muslim reformers, the separation between the religious and secular has been complete in Islam ever since.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Ibn Khaldun, though a conservative in certain aspects of his belief, was nevertheless dismayed by the negative attitudes towards learning among the Muslims. He writes: When the Muslims conquered Persia and came upon an indescribably large number of books and scientific papers, Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas wrote to Umar bin al-Khattab asking him for permission to take them and distribute them as booty among the Muslims. On that occasion, Umar wrote him: 'Throw them in the water. If what they contain is right guidance, God has given us better guidance. If it is error, God has protected us against it.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Ibn Rushd's writings were translated into Latin and Hebrew by European scholars. There soon appeared super-commentaries on his commentaries. Many of the writings exist only in these two languages, the original Arabic writings being long lost. This itself is a commentary on the extent to which Ibn Rushd, as a rationalist philosopher, was able to influence the mood of his times

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    It is absurd to think that the scientific views of a Muslim scientist are necessarily connected with his religious belief, or that he necessarily derives inspiration for his scientific work from faith. This was as true a thousand years ago as it is now. Alchemy provides an excellent example. Developed extensively by Jabir Ibn Hayyan and AI-Razi, and based on certain myths going back to Arius and Pythagoras, it was one of the most important Muslim contributions. Of course, today everyone knows that alchemy was scientific nonsense: there cannot be anything like the Philosopher's Stone, and the transformation of base metals like copper or tin into silver or gold by chemical means is an impossibility

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    It is imperative to realize that Muslim culture is inextricably wedded to the past

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    It is somewhat paradoxical that AI-Ghazzali spearheaded the attack against free-thinkers and the proponents of logic, but in doing so had to use the weapon of his adversaries. Indeed, the stubborn ghost of Greek dialectics withstood exorcism by the greatest Asharite of all time.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Objectivity is made possible because experiment and logical consistency are the sole arbiters of truth - of no consequence is the scientist's mood or moral character, his political beliefs or nationality. or even his status in the world of science. On this last point, consider, for example, that Einstein was never taken too seriously when he (wrongly) set out to criticize quantum mechanics - this in spite of the fact that he was acknowledged as the greatest living physicist of the time.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Science may have transformed the world into a global village, but it has yet to teach the villagers to learn to talk with and understand each other.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Should a non-Muslim have alleged that Muslim science is but a regurgitation of Greek Science, one can safely suppose that he would be angrily challenged. But coming from supposed defenders of the faith, these insults to Muslim science and Its heroes have drawn little reaction.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    The belief that modern science is on its deathbed is nothing but a flight of wishful imagination. It provides solace to those who regard modern science as the source of evil in the world. But wishing death to the enemy seldom causes him to die. As a matter of fact, far from being a sputtering candle, modern science is today more vigorous, faster expanding, and more secure in its power and scope than it has ever been in the past

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    The elites which rule Muslim countries today have shown little ability – or even desire - to address the myriad problems and challenges of a modern world. Of these, the development of science and a rational culture are perhaps the most important. Indeed, compared with non Muslim countries possessing roughly equivalent resources and a comparable level of cultural development, Muslim states do poorly.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    The Hanbalite Ibn Taymiya understood Ilm (knowledge) as referring to that knowledge which derives from the Prophet. Everything else he regarded either as useless or no science at all, even though it might be called by that name.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    The proponents of this bizarre science are not the traditional ulema but, instead, holders of high-level degrees in scientific fields. Most of them have studied in the West, although almost none of them have any significant professional achievements to their credit. Islamic science provides a refuge from the challenge of doing difficult science.

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    Pervez Hoodbhoy

    To conclude, there is nothing in Muslim mathematics which could be called Islamic mathematics. If there is a difference, then that difference is simply that Muslim civilization did better than any of the others for the 500 years of its Golden Age