Environmental activists blame it for damaging nature. Neo-Marxists judge it for serving the interests of capital. Feminists staunchly criticize its value-neutral claim. And Islamic scientists deem it wrong.

It seems modern Western science is out of favor with a lot of people.

Science is everything but the scientists, say some academics, and it is at this very point that critics raise their voices -- namely, against the scientists' process of knowing things that very much shape the knowledge that is produced.

The Western theory of knowledge (epistemology) has been under fire particularly since 1962, when noted philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn introduced his concept of the "paradigm shift", provoking years of debates on so-called scientific objectivity and claims of the universality of science.

Feminist scientists, for instance, argue science is shaped by culture, historical context, gendered social construction and all the other social dimensions of scholars. Concluding that science is in the interest of men, they offer women's perspective of science.

Environmentalists (or ecologists) challenge the human-centered worldview that treats the natural world as a resource to satisfy human needs. This paradigm, they say, eventually led to the exploitation -- and thus the degradation -- of the natural world. They then developed an ecocentric worldview that portrays the human species as merely part of nature, not its "masters".

Yet another approach is offered by Islamic academics with their move to integrate religion and science. One of the proponents of the integralist paradigm is Mulyadhi Kartanegara, professor of Islamic philosophy at the Islamic State University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah in South Jakarta.

Mulyadhi supports the Islamization of science as he believes Islam teaches humans to live in harmony with nature. He argues that Islam has its roots in its theology of the environment because theology in general acknowledges the existence of the soul in nature.

Challenging the claim of the universality of science, the University of Chicago graduate comments, "The dominant philosophy of Western science does not acknowledge metaphysical existence (i.e., the spiritual realm). Their method is objective-empirical, meaning that what is perceived as reality is only what is measurable by the physical senses.

"They have left God behind; the scientists have neglected the divine role in nature, and no longer see nature as ayat Tuhan (God's revelation). Nature is perceived merely as an object, material without soul.

"At this very point we witness the failure of secular science, as it leads to destruction and multidimensional crises in human civilization," Mulyadhi said, referring to the environmental as well as social and biological degradation that characterizes the problems of the world today.

Unlike the Eastern religious concept of oneness of nature and humanity, Mulyadhi said in Islamic theology human beings play a role as khalifah, the representative of God on earth, equipped with managerial rights over nature. As God's representatives, the way human beings treat Earth should not be against God's will.

"Disaster strikes when the representatives are not in line with their *boss'," he joked.

Mulyadhi is the author of several books on Islamic philosophy and epistemology, lecturer at Islamic higher education institutions and executive board member of various research institutions including the Center for Islamic Studies and Information (CIPSI) in Jakarta, the Islamic College of Advanced Studies (ICAS) and the Center of Islamic Epistemology of the UIN. He explains his position to The Jakarta Post.

Question: Why Islamic science? Answer: As secular-modern sciences have led to multidimensional crises, there is a need to construct a new paradigm in research activities. Western thought has come to a deadlock now, into what is called "endism": the end of ideology, of history, of modernity. It is not only Islam that is responding to the West. I heard that in the near future there will be a meeting of world scientists in Japan, with the agenda of responding to the deadlock. They will search for alternatives, and Islamic scientists will be invited to present Islamic epistemology. Q: Could you elaborate on what is Islamic epistemology? A: Almost all Islamic schools of thought perceive nature as a living organism, and Islamic scientists work within this framework; we study nature as the science of God. Islamic epistemology acknowledges not only the physical senses, but also logic, intuition and revelation as the sources of knowledge. We are against reductionism in which knowledge is reduced into a mere physical experience.

When it comes to nonphysical phenomena, we use a demonstrative method, in which scientists demonstrate their right way of thinking, verified by logic. Q: Religion is also about moral authority. Do you see any danger in framing science within a certain religion and do you think religion will be the solution? A: Western scientists of the 19th century hoped science would replace religion, but the facts show it instead led to world wars.

Islam divides science into two categories: religious science and rational science. As long as it is not against the main Islamic teachings -- that is, belief in God, angels and the end of the world -- there is freedom in rational science. Q: What will be your response if people perceive your criticism of Western science as parallel to that of the proponents of political Islam toward the so-called Western hegemony? A: They (the Islamists) are against everything Western. We (Islamic scientists) are not anti-Western. We adopt their rigid and rigorous methodology when we study empirical phenomena, but we criticize their secular approach.

Furthermore, in this sense, we do not dichotomize the West and the East. We are dealing with the truth. In our framework, theism is the absolute category. Thus, when a paradigm negates God, we judge it as wrong and believe Muslims should find their own way to deal with science.

Ida Indawati Khouw

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