WebSitesOfNote

Islam, science and deference: "This site reminds us of something overlooked in this week’s debate about the “Enlightenment” – that Islam, in its early years, was wholly consistent with scientific progress. It gave us men such as Al-Razi,discoverer of sulphuric acid and ethanol, Al-Khwarizmi, inventor of algebra, Ibn Firnas, inventor of the glider, astronomer Ibn Al-Shatir, and Al-Haytham, a pioneer in optics. Which raises the question: what exactly is it about the western “Enlightenment” that is alleged to have produced the goods of scientific and technical progress? It’s not any unique conception of rationality, still less a secular one. It's not just the early history of Islam which shows that scientific progress is compatible with religion. Newton, remember, was a religious crank. And the man who gave his name to what we consider the epitome of rational thinking – Bayesianism – was a priest. I suspect the key to progress, which the Enlightenment promoted but did not create, is a rejection of deference, a desire to find things out for oneself rather than take them on trust. The problem, though, is that deference is still with us, even in science, as Steve Fuller points out. In politics and in business, the norm is to defer to “leaders”, and chief executives – a"