ISLAM
AND
CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE
by
SYED SIBTE NABI NAQVI
All Rights Reserved by the Author.
Second Edition 1983
INTRODUCING THE AUTHOR
Syed Sibte Nabi Naqvi was born on 7th January, 1907 i n t he fami l y of Qub ai Syeds of Budaun, Indi a. T he fir st ancestor of the author who mi grated to t he s ub-cont i nent f rom Quba near M edi na in 587 AM ., Hazrat Sharaf Uddin Ala was a Khalifa of Shaikh Shihabuddin Suhrawardy. His son, Hazrat Alauddin
Usuli, taught the Hanafi jurisprudence to Hazrat Nizam Uddin
Aulia of Delhi. Another ancestor of the author, Hazrat Sadar Uddin Mahmud, was the Grand Qazi of Bengal. Still another ancestor, Syed Hamza Danishmand, wrote several books, of which the Arabic grammar entitled Mizan-al-Sarf is well-known. His father, Moulana Syed Inayat Ahmed Naqvi Hairat Budauni, was a great scholar. He corrected the defective manuscript Ibn ai-Farisi's rare book on optics entitled Tanqih al-Manazir, which is a commentary on Ibn al-Haitham's Kitab al-Manazir. Tanqih
al-Manazir has been published by Dairat-ul-Maarif, Hyderabad
(On), in two volumes.
Syed Sibte Nabi Naqvi got his training in Islamic thought from his father and received his school education at Moradabad and Budaun. Later on he moved to the Aligarh Muslim University where he obtained his Honours' and Masters degrees in Physics.
in 1930, he joined the india Meteorological Department at Poona. During his stay at Poona he actively participated in the activities of a local Islamic Missionary Society and as such. came in close contact with His Eminence Mohammed Abdul Aleem Siddiqui (R.A.), it was during the period of 1931 to 1942 that most of the material and topics discussed in the present book were written by him in Urdu.
At the time of Partition in 1947, the author opted for Pakistan and was associated in the division of assets and organisation of Meteorological Service in Pakistan, in 1953 he was appointed Director of the Pakistan Meteorological Services.
In 1940 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Meteoro-logica! Society, London, in 1954 a Fellow of the Royal mica! Society, London, and in 1958 a Fellow of the Geophysical Union of U.S.A.
\n 1955 he was invited by the UNESCO to serve on its
Advisory Committee for Arid Zone Research. About the same time he was selected by the WMO to serve on its Panel of Experts f or Humi d Tropical res earch and later for Tropical Meteorological Research 1960-66. He organised the Pakistan programmes of research during the International Geophysical year 1957-58, the international Indian? Ocean Expedition 1960, the International Quiet Sun year 1964, the international Hydrological Decade 1965.
He acted as Secretary of the Section for Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Meteorology and Statistics during the annual session of the Pakistan Science Conference in 1956 and as its President in 1957, and as President of the Geography, Geodesy,Geophysics and Anthropology sections of the Pakistan Science Conference in 1958. He delivered the Ibn Sina Lecture at the Annual Conference of the Pakistan Scientific Society in 1960 and was elected its President in 1961. He presided over the Meteorology, Oceanography, Geophysics sections of the pan Indian Ocean Congress in 1961. He was a member of the Punjab Flood Commission 1951 and ci the East and West Pakistan Flood Commissions when they were formed in 1956 and 1957 res-pectrvely and continued till 1966.
He was elected Vice-President of the Regional Association for Asia of the WMO for the term 1955-59 and its Pre-sident from 1962 to 1965. He was appointed as a United Nations1 Technical Assistance Expert for Meteorological Organisation and Training in Iraq from January 1966 to Feb-ruary 1969. He performed the Hajj in 1960, 1964 and 1969.
Presently, he is Honorary Professor at the Aieemiyah Institute of Islamic; Studies and a Member of the Council of Learning of tne World Federation of Islamic Missions.
FOREWORD
Professor Syed Sibte Nabi Naqvi deserves the gratitude of all Muslims for his contribution to a field of study which is of immense importance in the perspective of the ideological conflict that has been projected since the nineteenth century in the names of religion and science.
The advances in scientific Knowledge are said to have posed a challenge to the religions of the world. That may be correct in the case of religions, other than islam. As for Islam, however, the Holy Qur'an itself had proclaimed that, instead of challenging the truth of its Message, the advances in the domain of empirical knowledge will increasingly confirm it (XLI :53).
Being a scholar of Physics and Astronomy, Professor Naqvi has very naturally discussed certain Islamic verities in the light of those sciences, and his discussions are scholarly i and illuminating.
What is of importance in such discussions, however, is
not the accuracy of the Interpretation of every detail, wherein
there are possibilities of differences even in pure theological thought but the basic facts of empirical knowledge as they emerge to support what has been taught in religion.
With this standpoint I commend Professor Naqvi's labour of love to all seekers of the light of knowledge, and I hope that Professor Naqvi himself as well as other Muslim scholars of science will devote increasing attention to the projection of that latest scientific knowledge which is illumi-nating progressively the path to the understanding and the appreciation of the eternal Truth enshrined in the teachings of Islam.
(Dr.) Muhammad Fazl-urRahman al-Ansarial-Qaderi.
Islamic Centre, Karachi-33. Pakistan. 21-6-1973.
PREFACE
I was asked by Dr. Muhammad Fazl-ur-Rahman al-Ansari al-Qaderi, President of the World Federation of Islamic Missions, to deliver a series of lectures on Philosophy of Science as a part of education at the Aleemiyah institute of Islamic Studies. When I undertook this job, however, I was leading a etired life and had no access to the large number of books which I had the privilege of reading in the libraries of the Muslim University, Aiigarh, the India Meteorological Department, Poona, and the Pakistan Meteorological Department at Lahore and Karachi. I had, however, been writing in Urdu some lectures and articles based on my studies from 1931 to 1940. The Jamia Milliya Islamia (the National Muslim Univer-sity), Delhi, came to know of It about 1938 and invited me to deliver a series of lectures at their Academy. I compiled them in Urdu, but they could not be delivered due to some difficuities resulting from my being in governmental service.
Thus in the absence of the original sources on which my thoughts in the present lectures are based, i had to rely on memory and the Urdu material collected for lectures at the Jamia Milliya, Delhi, and a few books which I have col-ected in my personal library during all these years. Many "references which would have increased the value of the statements in the present book could not be procured afresh in the short time available to me for arranging the materiai in the form of a book. Effort will, however, be made to remove this deficiency in future editions.
I have been a scientist by profession for about forty years. As head of a major scientific department in Pakistan for fourteen years in its most formative period, for decidingpolicies-and programmes of
research in a number of branches of Meteorology, Geophysics and Astronomy, on innumerable occasions, I had to base my judgments on the fundamental concepts underlying each case. As a member of the UNESCO Advisory Committee for Arid Zone Research and of WMO Panels of Experts for Researches in problems of Humid Tropics and Tropical Meteorology, as the Convenor of the National Committee for Organising Researches in Pakistan during the] International Geophysics! Year, the International Year of the Quiet Sun, and the international Indian Ocean expedition, and as President of the Regional Association for Asia of the WMO, I had to do the same thing at the international level As such, I had to keep myself in touch with the latest trends of thought in Meteorology, Geophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, This perhaps gives some justification for my agreeing to undertake the job.
My initiail training was in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, but my specialisation for hobby and occupation has been in Meteorology, Geophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, and in Statistics as their hand-maid. Evidently, therefore, my present discussions are mostly from the point of view of Physical Sciences. Some branches of Meteorology and problems of Arid Zones and Humid Tropics deal with effects of environmental factors on living bodies. This has forced me to deal with Ecology and fundamentals of Biology also, but this was only a side-activity.
During the period of supremacy of Islam the sciences of that period were taught to the students of Islamic Learning as a part of their normal courses of study. But, the present course of lectures is a novel experiment in Islamic education in modern times. No guide-lines have been laid down con-to chalk out my own line. However, any honest criticism and suggestions for improvement would be most welcome. These I am confident, will help us to improve the scope, of these lectures in the future.
I was emboldened to undertake these lectures because they happened to give a concrete shape to my lifelong interest in the subject. The first extra-curricular English book which j remember to have read, perhaps even before I could read Robinson Crusoe, was "The Reason Why in Science", in. my early childhood, the first or the second book which I received as a reward from a revered friend of the family was the life of Michael Faraday.
Later on, in the nineteen-twenties, as a young student of science 1 had the opportunity to read books of famous authorities on Cosmology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Relativity, Quantum Theory and Wave-Mechanics, besides my course of study for Honours and M.Sc. degrees in Physics. At this stage I used to ask all sorts of questions, like all other young men knowing a little science, and my father used to satisfy my curiosity lovingly and affectionately by quoting passages from the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith, and explaining the principles of Epistemology, as developed by the Muslim scientists and Ulema, of whom he was one. He had made a special study of the works of Ibn al-Haitham and used to quote his scientific concepts quite often. This is the base on which the entire structure of my ideas stands and the following verse of the Holy Qur'an has been my guide since early
youth:-" Lo! in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the difference of night and day are tokens for possessors of understanding—such as remember Allah stand-ing, sitting and reclining and ponder over the creation of the heavens and the earth (and say), Our Lord! Thou created not this in vain."
(Ml: 190-191)
As a result I have followed the developments in Physics, Astronomy and Geophysics with great interest during the last 50 years with some creative interest in the case of the latter two.
I am most grateful to Dr. Muhammad Fazl-ur-Rahman al-Ansari al-Qaderi for initiating and providing me the opport-unity and the encouragement to make the present contribu-tion, as also for the great pains he has taken in editing polishing up the final manuscript.
Parts of the chapters on Cosmology and the origin of the Universe and Man were published in the Iqbal Review and the Scientist. They are reproduced here with many modifications. I am, however, thankful to them for permitting me to use that material.
I must also thank my son, A.M.H. Masud Naqvi, and my nephew, Abu l Fazl Muhammad Alvi. for critically going through the manuscript and offering many valuable
sugges-A. Nasir and Mr. Idrees sugges-A. AH for carefully correcting the proofs
I must also thank the office of the World Federation of Islamic Missions for typing the manuscript three limes before it could be ready for the press.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
Preface VII
Introduction XIIl
I- What Is Science and its Philosophy 1 II- Unities Established by Science 10 III- The Scientific Method
IV- History of Development of the Scientific Method 47 V- Philosophy of Modern Science 51 VI- Creation of the Universe as Understood by
Modern Science
69
VII- Origin of the Universe and Man
according to the Qur'an 100 VIII- Some Conclusions Drawn from
Advances of Science 126 IX- Miracles of the Prophets 140 X- The Mliracle of Celestiisi Journey by
Night (Isra) & Ascent (Me'raj) of
Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) 146 XI- God (Allah) 160
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this book is to introduce Philosophy of Science to the students of Islam. This is very significant, indeed, because science deals with our experiences in this world, while Islam deals with the life of man in this world and in the Life Hereafter. Science can only support and strengthen Islam. It can never be, and has never been, opposed to the Qur'anic Revelation, viz., Islam, it is, therefore, most appropriate that Philosophy of Science should be taught in an Islamic Institute, as a part of Islamic studies.
Judaism and Christianity are basically opposed to science. So is the case with most other religions. They are all based on mythology and miracles, and the scientists had to suffer inquisition in the Christian world as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The tree of knowledge was the forbidden tree according to the Bible. Not so in Islam. Knowledge of the names of all things in the universe was, according to the Qur'an, the distinctive merit of Adam over alt other beings. Reading and writing, were emphasised in the very first revelation received by Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him!). Observation of nature and contemplation of the natural phenomena were declared by the Holy Qur'an to be the distinctive characteristics of the righteous Muslims and the wise. The Qur'an was declared'.to be the greatest and the standing miracle of Holy Prophet Muhammad. And what is that but a simple exposition of the basic principles and practices of conduct which could establish peace, contentment and happiness in this world and in the Hereafter.
While trying to understand, in the light of the Holy Qur'an, the implications of various trends and concepts brought out by modern science, my approach is basically different from that of the Rationalists (Mo'tazilites) and the Scho-lastics
knowledge and the continuously-expanding and curm-lative nature of science. Knowing the uncertainty of know-ledge and the impossibility of full and complete knowledg, and also being conscious that the whole basis of correlations established by science today may change completely by its advances tomorrow, as has happened several times in the past I do not like to explain the validity of the verses of the Holy Qur'an, which is the last Word of God, by far-fetched reasoning on the basis of the scientific theories prevalent at the time. If the meanings of the verses of the Qur'an apparently agree with the findings of science today, very good! If the do not appear to agree, we must wait for advances in science rather than distort or restrict the meanings of the Holy Book
Ho doubt, in every age, we will have to make efforts to understand
the Word of God according to the knowledge gained by different methods up to that time, but if there is any thing in the Qur'an which we cannot understand according to this knowledge, we need not hesitate to admit it, not as a proof against the truth of the Word of God, but as a challenge to the limitation of our knowledge. There are many example which can be quoted, e.g., the Qur'an requires us to belive in the Angels and the Jinns, or in the life-after-death and the Day of Resurrection. If we cannot understand these with the help of modern science, there is no need to deny them, or to explain them away by far-fetched reasoning, as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan tried to explain the Jinns. in spite of the Prin-ciple of Uncertainty, and all its implications, let us wait and exert. There; may be new discoveries which may throw light on such phenomena, if we can now find pairs of such things as matter and anti-matter, and particles and anti-particles, as asserted by the Qur'an more than thirteen centuries back thai there are pairs of everything, we may succeed in identify -ing many other things also, which so far appear uninteliigible and impossible.
The present writer is aware that many western scientists and philosophers have written books on the philosophy of science. But they all deal with the impact of advances of science on the Western
mind. The impact of these same advances of science on the mind of a practising Muslim scientist remains completely unrepresented. The present book has been written to fill in this long-standing gap and as such may be of some interest even to non-Muslim philosophers. It deals with the impact on Islamic thought of the advances of science up to the closing decade of the fourteenth century after Hijrah. Imam al-Ghazali and other Muslim scholastics, includ-ing-the Ash'arite and the Mo'tazilite philosophers, had tried to assess the impact on Islamic thought of the advances of science during the first thousand years of the Muslim era. But the difficulties in their way were innumerable. In spite of the brilliant attempts of the Muslim scientists the clutches of the classical 'learned ignorance' had not loosened and the axiomatic Deductive Method of the Greeks continued to hold its sway. Science was still a prisoner in the charmed labyrinth of Greek and Egyptian design.
The revolt started by the Muslims against the old scientific method came to full fruition after the European Renaissance. But by that time the Muslims had been routed in Spain and the Middle East. Their learned people had been ruthlessly murdered and annihilated. Their books and libraries had been destroyed or carried away as prizes of plunder and stored in the archives of the enemies of Islam with the result that the contributions of Muslim scientists and philosophers were fully used as stepping-stones for further advances; their names were completely suppressed to the extent of dishonesty and intellectual robbery. If any Muslim contribution was mentioned at all, it was distorted, belittled and described in most damaging terms. No doubt there were some exceptions, but they were insignificantly few and were generally ignored. All this led to a complete intellectual demoralization of the Muslim youth, when the time came for them to be educated in he new sciences and philosophy.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan of the Aligarh Movement fame, Sheikh Muhammad Abduh of Egypt and Allama Iqbal, Pakis-tan's philosopher-poet of world-fame, undoubtedly tried to reassure the Muslims of the genuine worth of the contributions of the Holy Qur'an and of the Muslim intellectuals in the advancement of human thought. They tried
to show that the Word of God conformed fully with the Work of God investigated by science, and thus science and Islam could never come in conflict. But the advances of science since the death of Allama Iqbal have been simply breath-taking. Every year brings in so many absolutely new ideas and such revolutionary concepts that even the western philosophers are getting staggered.
We have, therefore, examined some of the latest advances in physical sciences afresh to determine their implications on the Islamic thought. The approach is generally from the point of view of physical sciences and astronomy. And since this book is designed mainly for the students of Islam, the statements of the Holy Book on the aspects of nature investigated by science have been collected together to give them an opportunity to compare and contrast the findings of science and the teachings contained in the Revelation received by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him!).
In three chapters towards the end of the book the impact of science on religion and a clear understanding of the prophetic miracles has been brought out, because miracles are supposed to be against the Laws of Nature and have been a real source of conflict between religion and science in the West. An effort has been made to examine the problem of the bodily Ascent of the Prophet to al-'Arsh on the occasion of Me'raj. For the same reason the concept of the One, Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent God of Islam has been dis-cussed at some length in the last chapter. By all this it is shown that the concepts put forward in the Holy Qur'an are becoming more clear by the advances of modern science.
XV!
What is Science and its
Philosophy
Before we start the discussion, let us be quite clear as to what we mean by science.
Immediately after gaining consciousness, man must have noticed that forces were operative in his environment. Some were helpful, others were harmful. The observation of these forces and phenomena, classifying them into different kinds according to their effects, establishing rules for identifying them, and then finding out some methods to decrease the harms associated with them, or to increase the advantages that could be derived from them, was certainly the beginning of a very noble intellectual effort, which we now identify by various arts and science, depending upon the aspects of mental activity covered by them, or the methods which they employ. This must have remained the main occupation of intelligent men for ages. The main aims of these efforts were:
(a) To understand the working of the environment and its impact on man.
(b) To exercise a measure of control over the surroundings. (c) To use the resources of environment.
(i) for meeting the immediate needs, and (ii) for producing security of self and that of the group.
This is what we do in science and technology and in knowledge in general.
1
Some homo sapiens were more intelligent than others d possessed better memories. Their capacity for.articulate
guage made it possible for them to accumulate and transmit ir knowledge and experience to their trustworthy youngs-s. Thus the knowledge continued to grow. In the beginning re must have been only two classes of people: (a) the wing, and (b) the unknowing. The former knew not only eir own experiences, but also the experiences of the
pre-US generations, which had been transmitted to them by
eir elders. They became thus the respected Elders of their At this stage efforts were made to give permanence to ase experiences by depicting them through rough drawings the walls of the caves used for habitation and protection. is was the beginning of writing and has been discovered ong with the remains of men of the oidest stone age. Mental powers used in acquiring knowledge are three: (a) the Power of Discrimination;
(b) the Power of Detecting Identity; (c) the Power of Retention,
The power of Discrimination is involved in every act of erception, because perception only means distinguishing a ate from the preceding one. Consciousness is produced by break in one state of mind and the next. This is just like the roduction of induced currents at the make and break of an electric current. In fact, the very process of living a conscious e is a continuous series of discriminations carried out by e mind. But if we had only this discriminating power, Science could not arise. To distinguish one thing from the other gives only negative information. It is the power of the mind for dis-covering Identity which links the present and the future with e past and this gives rise to Science and to "knowledge. fferent people possess the powers of discrimination and ntification in different degrees. It is this property of
pene-2
tratingr the disguise of variety and seizing the common elements of sameness which is a measure of intellect and distinguishes a genius from common people. The power of Retention is of course necessary
for using the powers of Discrimination and identity.
With expansion of experience and continuous use of powers of discrimination, identification and retention, the different aspects of knowledge got pronounced and the methods employed in their studies became clear. This led to differentiation of various branches of knowledge to which we now give different names like History, Politics, Geography, Astronomy, Mathematics, Philosophy, Science, etc. Their scopes have been changing in different periods, e.g., up to the Middle Ages many branches of modern science, like Physics and Biology, continued to be part of Philosophy, while Music and Mathematics or Medicine were regarded as independent sciences. Jealousies and competition for supremacy between different groups of men led to wars and bloodshed, which were, no doubt, very painful experiences of mankind. But it is a historic fact that these wars of supremacy of one group over the other led to great advances of knowledge in the fields of science and technology from the earliest times. In spite of ail the devastation which accompanied them, these wars helped in the expansion of human knowledge and the emancipation of mankind from many shackles. Many new discoveries were made to provide an element of surprise in war, and for routing the enemy.
Up to the end of the nineteenth century the material universe, as felt by the five physical senses of man, was regarded as much an orderly reality as the existence of man himself. It was here, whether man felt it and saw it or not. It continued to exist even when a man closed his eyes, or when he slept. It continued to work according to an inviolable law, whether there was anybody to see and feel it or not. The work of science was to discover the relationships between different fragments of this orderly reality, and to understand the law according to which these relationships worked.
3
This is evident from the definition of physical sciences given by eminent scientists of that period. For instance, Maxwell defines Physical Sciences something like this "Physical sciences cover that sphere of human knowledge which deals with the organisation and
arrangement of things in nature". The definition2 of science by Stewart Tait in the "Unseen Universe" is as follows: "From the time of Aristotle up to now the speculators can be divided into two classes: (i) those who try to understand 'How1, and (ii) those who try to understand 'Why'. The scientists come in the first category".
We may mention that the speculators who try to answer 'Why' come in the category of Philosophers. When, however, the answers to 'How' get widespread and the 'Why' of things gets mixed up with the 'How', we may call it the Philosophy of Science according to the definition given above.
In both the definitions given here, and all others given up to the end of the nineteenth century, an external universe working according to the requirements of common sense is taken for granted, and the role of science is assumed to be to investigate the way in which it works.
In the twentieth century, as the understanding about the working of Nature and Mind and of the teleological processes involved became clear, the concept of the sphere of science also changed completely. In his book on "Atomic Theory and a Description of Nature", Niels Bohr of Quantum Theory fame, defines 3 science by saying that "the work of science is to extend the sphere of our human experience and then to arrange these experiences in an order." Albert Einstein, in his book "The Meaning of Relativity", says4: "Sciences may be physical or social; the aim of all these is to correlate our experiences and then to bring them into a rational
Order... " Sir Dampier Wathom, in "A Short History of
Science", says5: "The aim of science should not only be 1 "Matter and Motion", P.9 by Clark Maxwell.—The definition given here it
a retranslation from Urdu translation of Maxwell's definition done by the author from the source n 1936-37.
2 Again or) retranslation from Urdu translation done in 1936-37, 3, 4, 5 On retranslation from Urdu translation done In 1936-37.
to correlate different phenomena, but also to correlate the concepts which are used to describe these phenomena".
None of the three new definitions of science given here speaks of a pre-existing universe. They are concerned with the correlation
of experiences of man (phenomena) and with the correlation of concepts used in describing them. Instead of dealing with a pre-fab fabricated machine, in which man was just a small cog, we now deal with the experiences of man— an changing and ever-expanding, dynamic, living process. This is science, and investigation into the concepts leading to the correlations provides us with the Philosophy of Science.
In Statistics, the meaning of ''establishing correlation" between one or more dependent and independent variables is to find out the extent of linear relationship between them. In order to establish such correlations, therefore, human experiences have been divided into various categories where simple relationships could exist, each of these being regarded as a branch of science and identified by a particular name. They can, however, be grouped under three major heads: (i) Physical Sciences, (ii) Biological Sciences and (iii) Social Sciences, each dealing with five basic elements, which, though outwardly quite different, are essentially similar in the ultimate analysis.
The Physical Sciences deal with: (1) Mechanical Time, (2) Space, (3) Matter, (4) Energy and (5) Movements produced by energy. Take, for instance, Physics. It deals with interactions between energy and matter and their movements in space and time. Chemistry deals with interactions between matter and matter in space and time. Astronomy deals with the behaviour of matter or its congregates spread out in space, as unfolded in time, under the influence of energy; and so on.
The Biological Sciences deal with: (1) Biological Time, (2) Life, (3) individual Cells, (4) Heredity and (5) Evolution.
The Social Sciences deal with (1) Perceptive time, (2) Consciousness, (3) Mind, (4) Intuition and (5) the Subconscious.
5.
included in a painting produced by him are shown by O---O
O---O correlations established by J O----.---.--O correlations established by L
Suppose K asks C some questions whose answers were known to him and to A when he was alive; C puts his hands D on table E. After some time the legs of E begin to produce a tapping sound. C says that the soul of A, viz., B has come and is answering the questions put by K, whose answers were not known to C, but only to A and K. Scientist J correlates the sounds F with the hands D of C on E, with their pressure G, and density of air H, frequency of sound waves I, etc. The other man, artist L correlates the same ex-periences in some other way, say by a painting. We have shown three types of correlations established by three different persons, a spiritualist, a scientist and an artist, by connecting experiences A, B, C, D, E, etc. By O---O, O---.----.--O or by O---O respectively in fig: 1. each of these has some reality which cannot be denied.
The correlations developed by C, J and L may ail have some significance and reality behind them, but we regard only those of J as scientific in which a particular method, recognised to be' the Scientific Method, is used, it is thus clear that although the knowledge gained by other methods may be correct and real, we do not regard it as "Science" unless a particular method is used for establishing the correlations.
We will discuss this method later on as we progress. Here I would like to stress that in the present series of lectures we will be concerned mainly with the results of the knowledge obtained by the Scientific Method. At some places we will try to compare and contrast this knowledge with the knowledge obtained through Revelation by Prophet Muhammad and recorded in the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith or by some other.
8
prophets as recorded in the Bible. In this process you will occasionally notice a close agreement between the findings of the two. But this should not be used as an argument to term, as some of
term Islam as a "Scientific Religion". I consider this derogatory to
the Holy Qur'an and to Islam. The Qur'an is a Revealed Book, and Islam is a Revealed Religion. To call them scientific means that they were acquired step by step by an experimental method, which is not a fact. The enemies of the Holy Qur'an, of the Holy Prophet (God's peace be upon him!) and of Islam could utter such a blasphemy, but not a faithful Muslim who knows the facts. Alas! many of our simple-minded scholars fail to realize the significance of such utterances. By calling Islam scientific in the sense that its truths are now being confirmed by the Scientific Method, they unwittingly admit the Scientific Method to be a better authority than Revelation. This is not correct. The Holy Book was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him!) by the All-Knowing God, for the guidance of mankind to the paths of peace, prosperity and happiness in this world and in the Hereafter. It teaches right conduct for ail kinds of situations which mankind can come across in its whole career, of which the fife in the material world is only a small section. As regards the Scientific Method, it is one of the fruitful methods for establishing correct relationships between experiences of man in this small section of his career.
CHAPTER II
Unities Established by Science
The most important characteristic of science, like Islam, is its universality; and whatever definition we may adopt, science arises from discovery of Identity amidst Diversity. It covers the entire field of human experience in the material world. Before proceeding further, therefore, I would like to
emphasize that the advances of modern science have now fully established three fundamental unities:'
(1) Unity of Nature, (2) Unity of Mankind, (3) Unity of Knowledge,
This is a natural outcome of the intellectual movement which started on its modern course under the influence of the Holy Qur'an. That book established the fundamental Unity of God, of which these three unities are a natural consequence. In addition, the unity of God leads to a fourth fundamental unity also, that of Religion; but we are not concerned with that in our present discussion.
The lively discussions of the philosophical problems of "Everything is He" 2 and "Everything is from Him" 2 in the days of intellectual glory or the Muslims, and the penetration of these fundamental concepts into the rank and file of the masses through the mystics, and the fatal consequences of an
•For full justification of this statement please see the History of Science, Volume I, Introduction, by 'Sarton'
1-
2-10
utterance based on the former concept to the life of Mansur— all these were expressions of this concept of the ail-pervading unity inherent in the teachings of the Holy Qur'an. Up to the time when the Qur'an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad, the heathens considered Nature to be
full of, and ruled by, conflicting forces engaged in a perpetual strife. There was a fundamental duality pervading ail the expressions of the Archaic Civilization of Egyptian origin in all the corners of the world. The Hindus regarded the material world as a deception (Maya) resulting from the whirls produced by a trinity of permanent and eternal realities—Atma. Permatma and Prakirti—the Soul, the Super Soul (God)' and Matter, but governed by innumerable gods engaged in perpetual struggle with each other. The Zoroastrians believed in two supreme forces of Good and Evil—Yazdan and Ahriman, engaged in a perpetual struggle. The Greeks had defined the ideas of atom, eternal particles of matter, and void. The Jews believed that their God, Jehovah, had a favourite race of Israel, while all others were inferior. The Christians believed in Trinity. The Bible had proclaimed Nature to. have been rent asunder again and again when the prophets performed miracles. This was the very basis of their religions. On the contrary, the Holy Qur'an declared:
"He Who created the seven heavens one above another; no want of proporiion wilt thou see in the creation of the Most Gracious (God). So turn thy vision again: Seest thou any flaw? Again turn thy vision a second time: Thy vision will come back to thee dulled and discomfited, in a state worn out (but thou wilt not discover any flaw or disharmony anywhere)." (LXVII: 3, 4).
When the people asked the Holy Prophet to perform miracles, the Qur'an declared them to be ignorant, and repeated again and again that "the Habit of God does not change". Although very unusual miracles, like those of the other Prophets—nay, even more profound, like the Ascent
( ), were occurring through Prophet Muhammad every now and then, the Holy Qur'an never put forward these miracles as a proof of the Holy Prophet's divine mission, but only
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as tokens and signs of God on which the wise should contemplate and from which those who fear God should take lesson. These signs pointed towards the fundamental unity of Nature, and to its uninterrupted working for a purpose, as is evident from the verses of
the Holy Book quoted above.
So, for the first time in the recorded history of mankind, the Holy Qur'an declared in unmistakable terms the Unity of Nature and the Inviolability of its Law, on which modern science insists and rests. But the findings of science are restricted to the material world, while the Unity of Nature of the Qur'an. includes the Spiritual world also.
So far as the Unity of Mankind is concerned, this idea was emphasised first by Islam. The Archaic Civilization, which is said to have developed in Egypt, had upheld the polygenic character of mankind all over the regions from Egypt to India, Indonesia, Pacific Islands and the Americas in the East, to Scandinavia and England in the North and the West, and among Bantus of Africa in the South up to Rhodesia and South Africa, even before the dawn of recorded history. Humanity was divided into two distinct classes: the Heaven-born sons of the sun and the moon, who ruled and went up to the heavens on death, and the Earth-born commoners, who helped in administration and went down to the underworld on death. No doubt, the Semitic religions taught the beginning of mankind with Adam and Eve, but up to the time of the advent of Islam humanity was divided into various sections and classes, high and low, depending upon their race, colour, caste and even occupation. The Prophets of Israel were not willing to throw the pearls of their wisdom before the Gentile swine, In India if a dirty Sudra happened- to hear the Aryan wisdom of the Vedas, molten lead was to be poured into his ears. Women and slaves were treated like lower animals, and had no status in the human society. White, yellow, brown or black races were not equal. The whole of humanity was divided and sub-divided by caste, colour, language and sex.
It was Islam which revolutionised the very basis of human society in this respect. The Holy Qur'an declared in
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unmistakable terms that: "Mankind was one single Nation, and God sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between people in matters wherein they differed; but the People of the Book, after clear Signs had come
to them, did not differ among themselves except through selfish contumacy...." (11:213). it emphasised the unity of mankind again and again. It abolished the differences between a slave and his master. Priesthood was abolished altogether. The rights, responsibilities and status of man and woman were made equal. And in his memorable last sermon, the Holy Prophet banned for ever all distinctions of status between Arab and non-Arab, Black and White, Master and Slave and Man and Woman.
This was the basis of the Unity of Mankind which is now becoming apparent by advances of science, but which has not yet reached the hearts of the Christian Whites, the Zionists or the Hindus. Hitlers and Mussolinis, Dayans and Smiths have been holding sway wherever they got a chance.
So far as. the Unity of Knowledge is concerned the revelation of the Qur'an started with the following verses: "Read in the name of thy Lord, the Cherisher, Who created (the entire universe), created man out of a clot of congealed blood: Behold! thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-He Who taught (the use of) the Pen, taught man that which he knew not." (XCVI: 1-5). Further on, the Qur'an made it a responsibility and the privilege of the righteous and the wise to observe all kinds of natural phenomena and thus extend human experience. Of course, the Qur'an gives all these directives a spiritual orientation in the most beautiful and forceful words, but they are equally useful for the conduct of researches in the material world carried on by the faithful. The very mission of Prophet Muhammad is described in the Holy Book at several places in practically the following words, which form a part of the prayer of Ibrahim (Abraham) and Isma'il (Ishmael) when they were building the Ka'ba: "Our Lord! send amongst them an Apostle of their own, who shall rehearse Thy signs to them
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and instruct them in Scripture and Wisdom ( ) and sanctify them: for Thou art the Exalted in Might, the Wise." (II: 129). Again in the same chapter (Surah II) in verse 151 the Qur'an says: "A similar favour have ye already received in that We have sent among you an
Apostle of your own, rehearsing to you Our Signs, and sanctifying you, and instructing you in Scripture and Wisdom, and in New
Knowledge."
The Prophet himself directed his followers to travel even to China to seek knowledge and learning, because knowledge was declared by him to be the lost property of every Muslim, be 'it lying in any corner of the world and in the hand of anybody—the heathens, the Christians or the Jews. The Muslims were told that an hour spent in pursuit of knowledge was better than years spent in prayers. The ink of the pen of a scholar was declared to be as sacred as the blood of a martyr in the cause of God. Not only this, the Qur'an also defined the way in which 'the Wise' acquire knowledge. It says: "Behold in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of ships through the oceans for the profit of mankind; in the rain which God sends from the skies, and the life which He gives (therewith to an earth that is dead; in the animals of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and earth;—here indeed are signs for a people that are wise." (II: 164).
it was all this inducement and honour offered by the Holy Qur'an and Islam which encouraged the Muslims, for the, first time in human history again, to collect at one place the knowledge of the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Iranians, the Indians, the Chinese—in fact from all corners of the then known world, in the Arabic language, in a Short period of less than 300 years. Huge amounts of money were spent on this-work—huge even according to modern standards.
Islam abolished the restriction of knowledge to particular groups and made it a legacy of the whole of mankind.
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It eliminated the privilege of the cultivation of knowledge on the basis of class or caste. Indeed, it made the pursuit of knowledge international and universal.
It was this firm belief in the Unity of Knowledge and this missionary spirit of the Muslim scholars and rulers which put Modern Science on its triumphant course, whose marvellous achievements we are witnessing today, and some of the implications of which we propose to discuss in the present series of lectures.
These three fundamental concepts of Unity of Nature, Unity of Man and Unity, of Knowledge form the basis of the Philosophy of Science. Ordinarily it is the philosophy of individual scientists. However, what we mean by Philosophy of Science is the basic concepts which have generally been accepted and on which the entire structure of modern scientific thought rests and works. According to the nineteenth century definitions of Science and Philosophy, Philosophy of Science is that in which we begin to discuss why a particular relationship exists and works. According to the new definition of Science, Philosophy of Science describes the basic corre-lations between concepts on which the correcorre-lations of human experiences themselves are based,
Some of these concepts are very intricate indeed and can be described only by mathematical functions. Physical interpretation of those concepts is difficult even for competent scientists, who understand the meaning, the significance and the limitations of each symbol used in the functions. It will be much more difficult for me when 1 try to make an effort to explain the significance of those functions to an audience of theological students, not having had the advantage of association with science to the extent required.
CHAPTER HI
The Scientific Method
While discussing the kind of knowledge with which we are concerned in science, and in trying to define science, we saw that science concerns itself with the entire field of human, experience, some portions of which overlap with Other branches of knowledge that are not included in science, such as spiritualism, history, art of painting, etc.
The distinctive feature of science was shown to be the method by which the phenomena are dealt with, Obviously the same method cannot be used for investigating matter and mind, or the mechanical, the biological and the perceptive Times. In the first chapter it was also hinted that the scientific method is not a fixed technique. It varies with the nature of phenomenon under study. The differences are, however, only in methods of observation and experimentation. In spite of these variations, there are certain features which are common to all the fields of science. In our present discussion we will try to study both these aspects.
A. COLLECTION OF DATA
The common basis of all sciences—indeed, of all knowledge— from the very beginning is the collection of data. In fact, it is a function of perception and cognition, or in other words, of the degrees of freedom of the body and the mind. The mind goes on collecting data from all kinds of observations and experiences. At the same time, by employing its powers of identification and retention, it goes on establishing relationships if some phenomenon appears to follow some
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other phenomenon, whenever this occurs. This is the function of common sense.
the collection of a jumble of data or observations of all kinds. As mentioned earlier, in science we start by breaking up the material world of common sense into its basic component elements like space, time, matter, energy, life, mind, consciousness, etc.
This is a very arbitrary division of the common sense material universe, which exists as a whole. We cannot be certain that each element which we treat separately in science Is really a separate entity in its own right. This can at best be regarded as a tentative hypothesis only. Such tentative hypotheses are the result of the natural primitive impulse of observation and correlation or of mental powers of Discrimination and Identity. The first function of science was to test the validity of the primitive hypotheses that were formed under the impulsive working of human mind, viz., common sense. This led to a great misunderstanding, which continued to plague science up to the end of the nineteenth century, and it continued to be believed that science was only an organised working of common sense. This misconception was removed only in the first quarter of the twentieth century when some of the most authentic and advanced results of science appeared to be against common sense. For instance, by that time it had been fully demonstrated by scientific method that mass, length and time associated with a body were all governed by its velocity, relative to some standard of reference—the length decreases, the mass increases and the time slows down as the velocity increases, but only with respect to the standard of reference chosen. If, however, some other standard of reference was chosen, such that their relative velocity was zero, the mass, the length and the time, all will remain unchanged. Very strange according to common sense! Or again: the Entropy of the universe is continuously increasing. Or, Light is both particulate and wavy in its nature. Or again: the Elec-tron, the Proton,—in fact, every elementary particle, behav?
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Sometimes like a particle and sometimes like a wave. Very, very strange, indeed! They are, at least, absolutely incomprehensible by common sense. When these findings became glaringly large and well-established, the scientists themselves began to re-examine
their position.
Now it became clear that the scientific method distinguished itself from the common sense method at the very first stage of collection of data in common sense we are interested in a perceptible complex of very different qualities of a body as a whole, which we may call molecules of perception. Thus, in common sense method we try to establish relationships between different kinds of molecules of perception.
Suppose our molecules of perception at a time relate to a tree laden with apples in a garden lighted by the sun. In this garden a healthy boy enters with a stick in his hand. He strikes an apple with his stick. The apple falls to the ground at a certain distance. He picks up the apple and runs away eating it by mouthfuls. After collecting all these data we establish a common sense correlation that the boy was perhaps hungry and he picked the apple to satisfy his appetite, and prophesy that he will do this again when he likes, unless arrangement is made to stop him from doing it. Here every molecule of perception is a complex of different qualities and we are interested in the working of each as a whole. The boy, the tree, the stick, the apple, all have matter arranged in them in different ways; they have different colours, they have different states of rest and motion, hardness, and so on, ail going to form each. We take each of them as a whole and then on correlating them according to common sense we understand what happened and what would be its consequence.
Not so in science. In the collection of data for science we break up these molecules of common sense perception into quite different molecules of science. For example, suppose I am a physicist and I want to study the phenomenon of rest and motion, or of colour and heat, and wish to correlate amongst each group. Now in the example quoted in the
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previous paragraph, ! will break up the molecules of common sense experience called boy, apple, tree, ground, sun, flowers and stick, and will collect in one group all forms of motion and rest, and in another group all forms of colour and heat.
I would pick out the colour from the cheeks of the boy, from the apple, from the tree, from the stick, from flowers, from the ground, from the sun, and will then collect data about other peculiarities of all states of rest and motion, or of different measures of heat obtained from different sources. I have now made entirely new molecules of my experience, viz. those of rest and motion, or those of colours and heat, and in science I try to establish correlations amongst these newly-created molecules.
Thus in the scientific method the first step is to collect data about some aspect of the material world, which we assume to be correlated with some other aspect according to some tentative hypothesis. This is done after breaking up the molecules of common sense and by creating new molecules for scientific investigation. It is not necessary that all the correlations established between molecules of science may always reconcile with the relationships established by common sense. And that is what we see in many cases. The correlations of science are many a time opposed to those of common sense. And the fact mentioned here is really the reason for that. There are some other reasons also for obtaining incomprehensible results, but they are too technical to be discussed here.
There are some aspects of Nature which can be studied in the laboratory, while there are others which are spread over vast areas in time and space. In the former case, we can control the parameters involved; while in the case of the latter, this Is not always possible. This divides sciences into two main groups: the Laboratory Sciences like Physics, Chemistry, etc., and the Field Sciences like Astronomy, Meteorology, Geology, etc. The time required for collection of data of equal reliability and significance is generally much shorter in the laboratory, than that required in field sciences. But the process
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is essentially the same, and it has to be ensured that the data used in any study represents a random sample of the normal population of the aspect of Nature under study.
However, the very basis of normality of a population goes on changing as our knowledge about the nature of things expands. Take for instance a population of shortest distances between two points. Up to the eighteenth century all the Euclidean postulates were supposed to apply to alt the phenomena observed on surfaces of the earth or in the interstellar space. The facts about straight lines between points on the earth and in the space could all be taken to belong to a random normal population. In the 19th century non-Euclidean geometry was developed by the mathematicians, and at the beginning of the 20th century the theory of Relativity was accepted. This theory postulated that the interstellar space was four-dimensional and non-Euclidean. Now the shortest line between the points on this paper will be a straight line while on a surface in the interstellar space, i.e., between a star and the earth, it would be hyperbolic and the shortest distance between two points on this surface will be a hyperbolic curve and not a straight line. While the observations about shortest path between two points on a plane surface and in the interstellar space could be regarded as belonging to the same normal population up to the end of the 19th century, they cannot be supposed to belong to the same random population now.
The primitive man depended for the collection of data entirely on his senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting, and their perceptive ability in each individual. But these senses are limited in their ranges of perception and can be easily misled. The perceptive capacities of different persons, or of the same person in different moods, also differ.
Keep for some time your left hand immersed in a jug of hot water and the right hand in a jug of cold water. Then take out the hands from the two jugs and put them both in a jug of luke-warm water. The left hand will feel the water in the jug to be cool, while the right hand will feel it warm. You
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look at the trees in a garden at some large distance. Though the trees are situated at different distances from you, they appear to you to be arranged in an array. You look at the stars on a clear night. They
appear to be spread out equally on all sides and you feet that you are at the centre of the galaxy. You look at a cube from different sides and angles, it goes on acquiring different shapes having no relationship with each other. You look at your wrist-watch and at the clock in another heavenly body. Even if the two give the same time when you and the other body are at rest, the time will be different if the two bodies are moving relatively to each other with a velocity comparable to the velocity of light.
Sometimes the observations are distorted by preconceived ideas by which the observer may be obsessed. Sometimes people see what they want to see, or what they think they ought to see. Thus your mind notes things which are not there. In taking observations for scientific purposes it is therefore essential that the man who takes observations should be clear in his mind; he should not be obsessed by any preconceived ideas, and should be on his guard to record only what is actually happening. To be sure about the reliability of his observations, he must take all steps necessary to eliminate the sources of error or misunderstanding, in spite of all the care that may be taken, the inherent difficulties mentioned in the last paragraph cannot be avoided and you set a limit to dependability on the conclusions based on empirical observations.
It is thus clear that a scientist should not only be honest in recording observations; he should also be clear and open in his mind and objective in his approach. He should have patience and perseverance to ensure reliability of his observar tions. He should understand clearly the peculiarity of his physical position and the limits inherent in his methods and equipment. If a scientific observer wishes to record data worthy of scientific study, he must either train himself in the qualities mentioned above, or be trained by experienced scientists to cultivate them. It is only then that the data collected by him
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method.
Even the observations taken with all this care cannot, and should not, be taken at their face value, until a number of other scientists confirm them independently, or preliminary statistical tests confirm their reliability.
In collection of this type of data for scientific purposes, we cannot depend entirely on our senses. For this purpose, we have first of all to decide some units of measurement for different kinds of quantities and qualities, and then devise the means for measuring them, so that they may be comparable and expressible by numbers. It is here that the difference in observations concerning physical, biological and social sciences becomes well marked, and different tests for comparability and reliability have to be devised.
The devices for measurement and & exact comparison of quantities, such as weights and scales for measurements of mass, length, area or volume, or quadrant and astrolabe for measurement of angles, are called scientific equipment. The devices which man makes for facilitating his work or for utilising the resources of the environment, such as wheels, pullies, axes, or the flints to produce fire, are called technological equipment. Both kinds of devices are required for scientific investigations.
At this stage you might be interested to learn the rules that Jabir ibn Hayyan—Geber of the Westerners—the pupil of imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, laid down for observations and collection of data in the eighth century of the Christian era. These have been quoted by Ibn Khallikan from the voluminous book of 2,000 pages which Jabir wrote on Chemistry. After emphasizing the importance of experimentation and observations for attaining mastery on a scientific subject like Chemistry, he has laid down ten rules, I give below the last seven of these which relate to
observatiofts:-"4. The time and season must be carefully chosen;
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5- lt is best for the laboratory to be in a secluded place, 6. The chemist must have trusted friends;
7. He must have leisure to conduct experiments;
9. and perseverance,
10. He must not be deceived by appearances into bringing his operations to too hasty a conclusion."
It is not necessary that all the observations which are relied upon in science be direct ones. But the effects of the, phenomena which are being investigated must be directly traceable and capable of quantitative evaluation, because it has often been rightly emphasized that a piece of knowledge, however widespread it may be, does not become science unless its concepts can be expressed by numbers.
The advances of scientific and technological equipment have contributed equally in the expansion of the intellectual horizon of man and in the methods and meanings of collection of scientific data themselves. You will be interested to know that immediately after the Muslims had translated the scientific works of different countries into Arabic in the eighth and ninth centuries A.C., they realized the importance of this and introduced big astrolabes and quadrants foe exact observations of Stars and Planets and had even invented a spherical astrolabe. It was the exact observations taken with these instruments that enabled them to detect the wobbling of the earth's axis and the revolution of the planets in elliptical orbits round the sun, much before Tycho Brahe, Copernicus or Kepler.
Originally, science insisted on dealing only with the hard, solid facts of observation and experience. But with the advances of science and technology we have now reached a stage where we deal with phenomena which we can never observe or even hope to comprehend fully with the limited material senses that we possess. What we now call observations are supposed to be the results of some other associated changes to be taking place in some way which can easily and
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fully be understood on the basis of the knowledge which we already possess. Most of our observations in atomic physics, biochemistry, biophysics, astrophysics, etc., are of this kind. We continue to
include all the information thus collected In the list of reliable scientific facts and data. The conditions which have to be satisfied are:
(1) The reliability of the equipment used for collection of data should satisfy objective tests based on theoretical and practical considerations and experience.
(2) We should be clear about the limits of reliability of the data obtained by such equipment. And,
(3) Whenever the particular conditions, under which a particular result has been obtained, are repeated, the same result should follow.
Events which occur only once in a while, like the miracles, and are recorded by honest and reliable observers, can remain a part of true history, but will remain outside the pale of science until they can be repeated, or their analogues found under some other circumstances, i.e., unless they are correlated to some other reliable and well-established scientific facts. Science cannot, however, be disinterested in such freaks simply for the reason that they do not satisfy the requirements of knowledge acquired up to that time. Many such freaks are responsible for the miraculous advances of modern science. Photo-electric effect, radio-activity, Rontgen rays, X-rays and many more freak discoveries may be mentioned to illustrate this statement.
B. CLASSIFICATION OF DATA
When a random sample of data, representative of a normal population in whose study we are interested, has been collected, we try to find out the characteristic of that population. This can be done only by arranging the data in some regular order. If there are more than one series of data which, according to our tentative hypothesis, we believe to be interrelated, we arrange the population in a regular order in
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pect of each parameter, such as ascending or descending
orders of magnitude of each, or by dividing them into smaller
homogeneous, or approximately homogeneous groups, or by
finding out their central values and indices of their dispersion
and variability, and coefficients of correlation. Sometimes it so
happens that the quantities themselves do not appear to be
related, but their second, third or fourth powers or their roots
show a significant correlation, in that case these derivatives
are used instead of the quantities observed. This is called
analysis and classification of data. In simpler cases this
pro-cess itself makes the relationships between different members
inside the series or with members of other series evident, but
that is not always the case. Even then the analysis and
classification has to be done, because after collection of
obser-vations or data this classification of data is the second
import-ant step in trying to discover Identity in Diversity. In fact, all
logical inference involves classification and it is required for
proper judgement. It is impossible to detect similarity between
objects without joining them together in thought, and forming
an incipient class. This is the purpose of classification.
Originally the success of classification and analysis
depended entirely on the insight or breadth of vision of the
scientist undertaking the study. But now an entire branch
of science called Statistics is at the disposal of a worker for
purposes of classification and analysis of data, and for testing
the validity and significance of the results.
C. HYPOTHESIS
After studying the characteristics of the members of a
population within the series, or their behaviour on variations
in some other population, we reach the stage when we begin
to ask the question 'How' about the working and their
corre-lations. The answer to this question is the hypothesis which
describes in words and, or, in symbols the relationships that
appear to exist between them. This is merely a postulate and
in the ultimate analysis depends on guessing which in itself is
not a scientific process as we understand it, but an absolutely
unavoidable step.
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Theoretically, the number of hypotheses which can be formed in
a particular case will depend upon the number of variable
parameters involved. Suppose a phenomenon involves only two
circumstances and there are two ways in which they may be
connected, there will be four ways in which they can possibly
occur. As such new circumstances of occurence or a variable is
introduced, the number of combinations is doubled. Thus if
there are three circumstances of their occurrence, there wilt
be eight combinations; if four, they occur in sixteen
combinations; if there are one thousand circumstances which
may be connected, the number of combinations would require a
number consisting of 302 digits to represent the ways in
which the qualities might conceivably present themselves. But all
these may not be logically valid. We have to test their validity
according to the laws of thought and logic. Suppose we have a
piece of matter. It may be iron (A) or not iron (a); it may be
metal (B) or a non-metal (b); it may be an element (C) or not
an element (c). Now there are eight possibilities:
ABC aB C ABc abC Abc aBc abc Ab C
