African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies

African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies ISSN 1621-4587 Vol. 3 (4), pp. 001-011, April, 2017. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Which of the two? - Knowledge or time

Masudul Alam Choudhury

Department of Economics and Finance, College of Commerce and Economics, Sultan Qaboos University Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 15 December, 2016

Abstract

Knowledge and time, truth versus falsehood, unity versus dualism, these and the like are the subjects for philosophical discourse in the light of the two contrasting worldviews of unity of knowledge versus rationalism. The emerging formalism also leads to practical considerations in the circular causation model of unity of knowledge. The Qur’an is invoked in this formalism to build the arguments underlying the analysis that follows in comparative perspective. This cultural diversity of intellectual discourse unravels the realism of the arguments taken up here in respect of what delineates the primordial reality - knowledge or time? In the Qur©anic sense, knowledge and time are circularly interrelated within the episteme of unity of divine knowledge. But the functional ontology, which establishes the phenomenology of unity of knowledge, is an exercise in logical formalism. This is taken up here. The arguments proceed through a labyrinth of mathematical philosophical discourse combined with facts from the philosophy of economics. A quantification of the idea in respect of the viability of the model of circular causation between complementary (unifying) entities is tested out. The results establish the practical possibility of the phenomenological model of unity of knowledge, explained in terms of its internal dynamics in the context of the circular causation and the complementary nature of interrelationship between knowledge and time in the philosophical part of the paper. The concept of knowledge, time and spatial entities, jointly comprising the topological mapping of and between multi-systemic events, is developed technically in the paper. It is extended to a technical appendix as well.

Key words: Epistemology, methodology, formal systems, philosophy of science, Qur’an.

African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies ISSN 1621-4587 Vol. 3 (3), pp. 001-005, March, 2017. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Ethical views of Ibn miskawayh and Aquinas

Hamid Reza Alavi

Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 21 December, 2016

Abstract

Ibn Miskawayh is one of the greatest Iranian Muslim philosophers in the eleventh century. His views particularly on ethics are very famous and important. On the other hand, Thomas Aquinas is the greatest Christian theologian and philosopher in the thirteenth century. He has also many famous and interesting ideas regarding ethics. The study of these tow scholars, as the representatives of Islamic and Christian philosophy respectively, will reveal their similarities concerning one of the most important sub – divisions of philosophy, that is, ethics. The goal of this article is to extract and explain their ethical views so that a common model of Islamic and Christian ethics might be identified which would be usable for all Muslim and Christian philosophers of the world.

Key words: Ibn Miskawayh, aquinas, ethics, happiness, pleasure, virtue, vice, evil

African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies ISSN 1621-4587 Vol. 3 (1), pp. 001-018, January, 2017. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Elements of Iberian and pre -columbian religious cosmology in central Meso-America

G. V. Loewen

Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, 1437 College Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 0W6 Canada. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 26 November, 20106

Abstract

In order to argue that contemporary performances of religious roles and theater in Middle America in fact are continuous replays of the original trauma of contact and its rehabilitation, and thus act as immanent conduits of the period of conquest and subjugation, the past sixty years of relevant anthropological texts are analyzed as discursive statements. These disciplinary archives rely on much older historical records and narratives, some of which contain ostensibly pre-Columbian accounts or descriptions. As well, anthropologists, and archaeologists with this regional specialization were interviewed concerning their understandings of culture change and conquest, and their observations regarding ethno- analogy and the interpretation of archaeological data and historical narrative. This project relies on a creative combination of sociology and anthropology to tease out the relationships amongst scientific discourse, historical narrative, and ethnographic observation. The problem that historicism renders what has been as what can only be both fragment and figment is judged to be partially assuaged by the performative interaction amongst non-Western pre- contact elements of cosmological beliefs and Western religious models of time, divinity, nature and the universe.

Key words: Cosmology, Meso-America, time, contact, conquest, Iberian.

African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies ISSN 1621-4587 Vol. 2 (12), pp. 001-009, December, 2016. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

The trajectories of culture, Christianity and socio-economic development in Vihiga District, Western Kenya

Susan M. Kilonzo

Department of Religion, Theology and Philosophy, Maseno University, Private Bag, 40105, Maseno-Kenya. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: +254 721 259 239.

Accepted September 15, 2016

Abstract

Culture is part and parcel of a community’s life irrespective of the repelling forces or demands from other social institutions, including the Church. However, some scholars have argued that the Church is a culture in itself (Clapp, 1996: 84). Subsequently, it should be considerate of other cultures around it. If the diverse cultures conflict due to the differing cultural views from the different groups, then ‘cultural wars’ are bound to emerge. The paper elaborates on the effects of harmonious existence of diverse culture to development as compared to the effects of conflicting cultures. The study was situated in Vihiga district of Western Kenya; a district with over 50 Christian denominations, besides other religious faiths. Only seven churches identified through purposive sampling formed the study group. One of the findings of the study was that, the consequences of defying churches’ cultures are manifested in the form of formation of independent movements in Africa commonly described as “places to feel at home” where people can practice their cultures without hindrances. This is an indicator of Christian diversity which has affected development both positively and negatively.

Key words: Culture, Christianity, socio-economic, development.