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Published in: Journal of Religion and Health 2/2016

01-04-2016 | Philosophical Exploration

Technology in Muslim Moral Philosophy

Author: Ebrahim Moosa

Published in: Journal of Religion and Health | Issue 2/2016

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Abstract

The article explores the place, role and status of technology in Muslim moral philosophy. Invoking early Muslim encounters with technology the author makes the case why technology is already deeply embedded in contemporary Muslim bioethical thinking. Due to an absence of the philosophical grounding there remains some ambivalence as to why technology is essential to Muslim ethical thinking. Countering the techno-pessimists, the author makes a case in favor of compositional thinking, namely that our thinking itself is altered by our tools and our environment. Compositional thinking opposes the representational mode of thinking that creates a dichotomy between nature versus culture, and technology versus nature. One should, however, anticipate an environment in which technology would be beneficial and not be viewed as potentially harmful.
Footnotes
1
The names of the three brothers were: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad, Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad and al-Ḥasan.
 
2
Lucie Bollens, “Agriculture in the Islamic World.”
 
3
Walīyullāh uses the term irtifāqāt, which literally means “to take support” and “to rely on.” Technically irtifaqat means that which is beneficial and makes things easy, literally gentle and generous (rifq). Translators like Hermansen translate irtifāqāt as “supports of civilization” which is descriptive, see al-Dihlawī (2003, p. 115). However, the equivalent of irtifāqāt in political thought is “political economy.”
 
4
Heidegger uses the neologism Ge-stell translated as Enframing to indicate “that challenging claim which gathers man thither to order the self-revealing as standing reserve”, p. 19.
 
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Metadata
Title
Technology in Muslim Moral Philosophy
Author
Ebrahim Moosa
Publication date
01-04-2016
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Journal of Religion and Health / Issue 2/2016
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0192-0

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