eMFAS Newsletter No.1

Vernal Modules 2013

FREE: The Introductory Lectures to the Spring Term Modules

The introductory lectures to our two Spring Term courses “The Madhhabs of Islam” and “Technique and Science” are open to anyone who wishes to attend without their having previously registered as Members of the MFAS or enrolled in a course. These lectures will serve both as introductions to and overviews of the courses.

Introduction to the Madhhabs of Islam – by Abdalhakim Andersson, Director of Studies at the MFAS

“Based on Ibn Khaldun’s notion that sciences and intellectual formations are not abstract entities, but crafts (sana’i’) formed as integral parts of the surrounding society, the aim of the course will be to facilitate an understanding of the internal and external factors – including political, social, economical and intellectual challenges – that shaped the development of the intellectual legacy of Islam that still remains active until our own time….”

Introduction to Technique and Science by Abdassamad Clarke, Dean of the MFAS

“The aim of the course will be to examine the rise of the specifically modern form of science of our age and to see how it contributes both to shaping our worldview as well as how it has shaped and continues to shape the terrain of power in the world.…”

“Discourses of the Secular” Winter Symposium lecture

The Winter Symposium lectures are now available for free on our website both in video format and transcripts. This week we will look at Abdalhakim Andersson’s lecture Discourses of the Secular, from which this extract is taken.

“The purpose of the following lecture – entitled Discourses of the Secular – is not to cover the full spectrum of secular ideas and realities in the modern age. Nor is it to make pronouncements about the virtues or vices of secular societies. Rather, it is an introduction to some perspectives that might help us to understand how the the secular, in its various discourses, defines our way of thinking and acting in the modern world….”

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Snippets and Nuggets

The Most Despised Science Book of 2012 is … worth reading

Mark Vernon

guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 January 2013 09.00 GMT

“Philosophers that break scientistic taboos, such as Thomas Nagel with Mind and Cosmos, risk much, but we need them
“Every year, I give an award to the Most Despised Science Book of the Year. …”

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