What Islamic Science and Philosophy?

The American Thinker ^ | December 01, 2006 | Jonathan David Carson

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The Muslim world is to be credited with helping preserve much of the knowledge of the Roman Empire, though they are also at least partially responsible for the complete fall of that empire. The number system comes from them (although it is traceable to India). While much of Europe was in the thrall of the Dark Ages (there were advances during that time, but it was a technological dark age, and many skills--how to make cement, for example--were lost), Muslim controlled Iberia thrived.

Give credit where credit is due. Even bad guys can be intelligent and can make contributions to the world.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

What Islamic Science and Philosophy?

The improvised explosive device (IEDs).

[saganite]

Even if the Muslims preserved knowledge in Spain they were at best placeholders until the West could recover from it's own bout of madness. Credit where credit may be due but no kudos for advancing science and the arts.

[BelegStrongbow]

I believe this is correct. The West reacted against its own Classical past, which Islam did not have to contend with. However, it should be noted that a good number ot texts turned up in Western monasteries, many fewer than we would like, but the tide of barbarism in the West had swept much away, not all.

[Young Werther]

The basis for Muslim knowledge? During that first rush of conquest they swept across the Middle East, North Afica and Spain where they met their match at Tours in 763.

Part of their entourage were Jewish slaves who "took care of the housekeeping." When the "Moors" were driven out of Spain by the "Cid" They left behind their Jewish slaves and the classical books and knowledge that the Jewish people had preserved. Yes Muslim scholars would invent the concept of Zero and build upon classical mathematical texts but their contributions were insignificant considering they contributed to the "Dark Ages" and not to the "Age of Enlightenment"

These Jewish knowledge keepers would make their way to Northern Italy where they shared this knowledge with Tony Soprano's forebearers and the FIRST Uiversity was founded.

To this day the modus operandi is the same.

[Psycho_Bunny]

It's bizarre that islamics have a reputation for advancing science, philosophy and the arts when everyone has always known they only transmitted knowledge from earlier ages, adding to it very little that was new.

Even Lord Russell - the notorious, WWII pacifist twit he was - knew Mohammedism was all but useless, beyond being The Great Transcriber of Western Thought.

It's not too surprising, given the barbarity tolerated by islamic thought.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

Conservatives know, should know, that a stopped clock can be trusted to be correct for two fleeting instances per day. The progressives are continually tinkering with Islamic Science and Philosophy (among all other things) to try and make it less wrong always. Hence the phrase, 'the lesser of two evils.'

Either we are equal or we are not. Good people ought to be armed where they will, with wits and guns. NRA KMA

[tm61]

they have made enourmous leaps in the methods of chopping off infidel heads. where would this world be without that?

[sittnick]

A college prof I know had been working on translating Averroes from Latin into English. Averroes would be the rough equivalent of Aquinas (especially because of his employment of Aristotle Aristotles approach), however, the profs conclusion was that Averroes was veering into pantheism. It winds up being an almost inescapable result of the radical monotheism of religions like Islam. (note: my apostrophe key is not working)

[wodinoneeye]

I remember an argument I had with some islamic guy who mentioned a muslim scientist/mathematician's who measured the circumference of the earth to a good accuracy as an example of Islams great achievements. His mouth closed very quickly after I mentioned that a Greek had originated that experiment in its method and result more than a thousand years earlier.

Many if the achievements that the moslems claim, they inherited from the people they had conquered (Persian Egyptians, etc...)


they write sites like this
http://www.arabji.com/ArabEdu/Edu3.htm

The Zero was actually developed long before in India/Babylon/Greece and the Moslems appropriated it (for example)

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Zero.html

[megatherium]

You're right. The words algebra and algorithm come from the Arabic. Perhaps the wealth of the Islamic world from 900 to 1300 made it the leader in commerce and knowledge (much of which they inherited from the Byzantine Empire they partially conquered). The interesting question is, why did the high Islamic culture collapse and the Europeans rapidly overtake them, after 1300? I think this author gives good insight into that, it had to do with their beliefs about the value of what we now call science and its relationship to faith.

[KingArthur305]

Right on, I think that science and the wisdom and courage to question the natural world made the separation between the west and the islamic world possible.

[Buzwardo]

BTTT

[Eyes Unclouded]

There is a difference between conquering people and translating their works and claiming them as your own and actually innovation. Any society that become Islamic... within a few generations critical thinking which is a must for science, questioning of authority (or heresy) which is a must for philosophy, and generally most social progress will grind to a halt. This war isn't so much a war about USA or the West vs Islam its about the long term survival of the human race. If a global caliphate is established we'll all pray alot and pretend to be Arabs but you can forget any deep space exploration.

[Eyes Unclouded]

what have they done for us lately

[megatherium]

It's not a Muslim power that has a probe orbiting Saturn, an expensive and difficult undertaking motivated only by curiosity and love of science. Nor is it a Muslim power that is spending tens of billions of dollars on research into the life sciences. They will be glad to purchase the cures which our massive investment in science will lead to, but they will still accuse us of being decadent, immoral and controlled by the Jews.

[Eyes Unclouded]

That's Casini (sp) right? As the son of a PhD and a budding scientist myself Islam keeps me up at night.

[VOA]

What Islamic Science and Philosophy?

If Islam is some paragon of science and philosophy, they were
in the same way the staff of libraries must all be scientists and
philiosphers.
They kept books and treasures that finally fell into the hands of
"The West" and were put to good use.

I wonder if all these Islamo-friendly historians have ever done
a full historical survey of all the books and technical advances
that Islam placed on a pyre while taking substantial parts of
the world by the sword, with the spilling of buckets of blood.

[megatherium]

Yep, Cassini.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html