علم الزمن والوقت
Away from the critical definitions of science, which were mentioned in several sources, like my book written under the series of “Khulassat Al-Maana (Compendium of Meaning)” entitled “Science and Scholars: in the Theory of Science and Awareness”, I would like to ask the following fundamental questions about “establishing a new science”:
– What is science made of?
– What are the specific characteristics of distinguishing one science from another?
– Can a subject be tackled by several sciences?
– Can one science tackle several subjects?
Ali Thanvi Said in his book “Kashaf Istilahat Al-Funun wa Al-Ulum”: every written science needs three things: subject, matters and fundamentals (approaches) … this principal is built upon tolerance, because every science has its own matters. Considering subject and fundamentals as part of them due to their connection to the matters that are intended in science ..”.
By reviewing the science classification book, like “Mafatih Al-Ulum” written by al-Khawarizmi, “Ihsaà Al-Ulum” by Al-Farabi and “Nafais Al-Ulum” by Amuli … in addition to the dominant classifications in library science like: Dewey Classification, Congress Library, Britannica Encyclopædia … etc, which indicates that science is not built upon specific subjects or dedicating a subject to multiple sciences, “it is possible for big things to be a subject to one science, as well as it is possible for one thing to have several sciences, the matter is therefore based on tolerance and permissiveness”.
For instance, they made of “celestial objects” “Ilm Al-Heya” in terms of form, and “astronomy” in terms of nature”.
The overall rule in establishing sciences is that “what is considered according to science is the search for everything that is surrounded by the human energy from subjective symptoms of the subject”.
It is important also to add that science is not only about information; yet the approach, consistency and non-contradiction (look Infosense: Understanding Information to Survive in the Knowledge Society by Keith Devlin).
We should note that there is no need to answer all of these questions and tackle all the matters; knowledge and scholar sometimes are unable to express inability, and say “we don’t know”, because what is unknown is greater than what is known; therefore, the Almighty Allah said “of knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you“.
Perhaps the most prominent features in the field of “time” is declaring inability to answer questions when there is a possibility to answer some, which is a feature that distinguishes it from several sciences and many scholars assume irrelevant answers and exaggerate in their claims, as Karl Popper creatively set the theory of “Conjectures and Refutations” instead of “verifiability”.
Written by: Dr. Mohamed Babaami
Translated by: Toufik Achour
The Article title in Arabic: (اضغط للوصول إلى المقال) ممّ يتشكل العلم؟
Date: 02/12/2022
