Students of natural and social sciences should find the passage quoted from Our Philosophy in this post especially insightful.Let me start off with a quick summary of what has been discussed so far. We have discussed Descartes' particular version of Rationalism, which is based on his Cartesian Method of doubt, also Hume's Empiricism, and then Berkeley's Idealism in the previous posts. It may be appropriate now to discuss the logic of scientific research in Shaheed Sadr's view.
That is, how do we obtain and ascertain knowledge about nature and its laws. In Sadr's view, the logic of scientific research is based on rational induction (see below). What is interesting about this discussion of rational induction is that it is applicable to both natural and social sciences, as we see that in the later chapters of Our Philosophy under the heading of a Realistic outlook of the world. In fact, Shaheed Sadr further expands this rational-realistic logic in his two other books, namely 'The Logical Foundation of Induction' (here, but translation not very good) and 'The Revealer, the Messenger, The Message' (here), to layout a unifying, common logic of scientific research in religious, social, and natural sciences. I will write more on the realistic worldview in my next post, inshallah.
What is this rational induction and how is it different from a purely materialist, sense perception/experiment based induction, here is what Shaheed Sadr says:
"We conclude from this that the empirical doctrine unavoidably leads to the elimination of the principle of causality and to the failure of demonstrating necessary relations between things. But if the principle of causality is eliminated, all the natural sciences will collapse, since they depend on it, as you will know.
The natural sciences, which the empiricists seek to establish on the basis of pure experimentation, are themselves in need of primary rational principles that are prior to experimentation. This is because the scientist carries out his experiment in his laboratory on limited objective particulars. Then he puts forward a theory for explaining the phenomena that the experiment in the laboratory had disclosed, and for justifying them by one common cause. This is exemplified in the theory that states that the cause of heat is motion, on the basis of a number of experiments interpreted in this way. It is our right to ask the natural scientist about how he offers this theory as a universal law applicable to all circumstances resembling those of the experiment, even though the experiment did not apply except to a number of specific things. Is it not the case, then, that this generalization is based on a principle stating that similar circumstances and things alike in kind and reality must share in laws and decrees? Here, once again, we inquire about how the mind reached this principle. The empiricists cannot claim that it is an empirical principle. Rather, it must be a piece of rational knowledge that is prior to experimentation. The reason is that if it were supported by experimentation, then the experimentation on which this principle is based also, in turn, treats only specific subjects. How, then, can a general principle be based on it? Thus, the establishment of a general principle or a universal law in light of one or more experiments cannot be accomplished except after admitting prior rational knowledge.
With this, it becomes clear that all the empirical theories in the natural sciences are based on a number of pieces of rational knowledge that are not subject to experimentation. Rather, the mind accepts them immediately. They are the following:
1. The principle of causality, in the sense of the impossibility of chance. That is, if chance were possible, then it would not be possible for the natural scientist to reach a common explanation of the numerous phenomena that appear in his experimentation.
2. The principle of harmony between cause and effect. This principle states that things that in reality are similar necessarily depend on a common cause.
3. The principle of non-contradiction that asserts that it is impossible for negation and affirmation to be true simultaneously.
If the scientist accepts these pieces of knowledge that are prior to experimentation, and then carries out his various experiments on the kinds and divisions of heat, he can, in the last analysis, postulate a theory for explaining the different kinds of heat by one cause, such as motion, for example. On the whole, it is not possible to postulate this theory as a decisive and an absolute one. The reason is that it can be such only if it is possible for one to be certain of the absence of another explanation of those phenomena, and of the incorrectness of explaining them by another cause. However, in general, this is not determined by experiments. That is why the conclusions of the natural sciences are, for the most part, presumptive, due to a deficiency in experiments, and to an incompleteness in the conditions that make them decisive experiments.
It becomes clear to us from what has preceded that the inference of a scientific conclusion from an experiment is always dependent on syllogistic reasoning in which the human mind moves from the general to the specific, and from the universal to the particular, exactly as viewed by the rational doctrine. The scientist is able to draw the conclusion in the above example by moving from the already mentioned three primary principles (the principle of causality, the principle of harmony, and the principle of non-contradiction) to that specific conclusion in accordance with the syllogistic approach.
Regarding the objection raised by the empiricists against the method of syllogistic reasoning- namely, that the conclusion in it is nothing but an echo of one of the two premises, that is, the major premise, and a repetition of it- it is a bad objection, according to the teachings of the rational doctrine. This is because if we intended to demonstrate the major premise by experiments, and had no other criterion, then we would have to examine all the divisions and kinds, in order to be certain of the soundness of the judgment. The conclusion then would have been also determined in the major premise itself. But if the major premise were a piece of rational knowledge, which we grasp without need of experiments, such as the primary intuitive propositions and the rational theories that are derived from such propositions, then he who seeks to demonstrate the major premise does not need to examine the particulars so that the conclusion is necessitated to take on the quality of repetition and reiteration.
Once again, we assert that we do not deny the great value of experience for humanity and the extent of its service in the fields of knowledge. However, we wish to make the empiricists understand that experiments are not the primary criterion and the fundamental source of human thought and knowledge. Rather, the primary criterion and the fundamental source are rational primary information, in whose light we acquire all other information and truths. Even experience itself is in need of such a rational criterion. Thus, we and others alike are required to admit this criterion on which the principles of our metaphysical philosophy are based. If, after that, the empiricists attempt to deny this criterion in order to falsify our philosophy, they would be, at the same time, attacking the principles that are the foundation of the natural sciences, and without which the empirical experience is completely fruitless.
In light of the rational doctrine, we can explain the quality of necessity and absolute certainty that distinguish mathematics from the propositions of the natural sciences. This distinction is due to the fact that the necessary mathematical laws and truths are supported by the primary principles of the mind, and do not depend on the discoveries of experiments. The scientific propositions are contrariwise. Thus, the expansion of iron due to heat is not one of the propositions that are given by those principles with no mediation, but is based on experimental propositions. The decisive rational character is the secret of the necessity and absolute certainty in the mathematical truths."
Source: Our Philosophy by Baqir Sadr. Trans. Shams C. Inati. See part I chapter I "The Primary Source of Knowledge."
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