Don't you find any of it interesting? Some of the concepts?
I would like to discuss epistemology.
For those who are not familiar, epistemology is sort of "theory of knowledge," "study of knowledge". Let me see how Wikipedia defines it.
Google says
"e·pis·te·mol·o·gy
/əˌpistəˈmäləjē/
Learn to pronounce
nounPHILOSOPHY
the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion."
"Epistemology (/ɪˌpɪstɪˈmɒlədʒi/ (About this soundlisten); from Greek ἐπιστήμη, epistēmē, meaning 'knowledge', and -logy) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge."
Right, so literally it's something like "knowledgeology".
So- two questions. Is knowledge innate? Or are we born as blank slates (blank slate theory)?
For Plato, knowledge is innate. Plato is correct about this. Knowledge is innate. This theory is expressed in Plato's dialogue Meno: "One feature of the dialogue is Socrates' use of one of Meno's slaves to demonstrate his idea of anamnesis, that certain knowledge is innate and "recollected" by the soul through proper inquiry." (from the Wikipedia description of Meno).
Of course, when I say knowledge is innate, I don't mean that we are born knowing the exact size of the state of Utah or the number of the population of Somalia (what Immanuel Kant would describe as a posteri knowledge).
However, we are born with certain innate knowledge. This is recognized both in Islam (every child is born upon the fitrah) and in Platonic philosophy.
Abu Huraira reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “No child is born but that he is upon natural instinct. His parents make him a Jew, or a Christian, or Magian. As an animal delivers a child with limbs intact, do you detect any flaw?” Then, Abu Huraira recited the verse, “The nature of Allah upon which he has set people,” (30:30).
https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/10/06/every-child-born-fitrah-nature/
I think it was John Locke who pushed the blank slate nonsense.
So you see, in ancient Platonic philosophy, the position on this issue was very similar to the correct position- the Islamic position.
Let me see if I was right...... yes, it was John Locke. "In Locke's philosophy, tabula rasa was the theory that at birth the (human) mind is a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences." (Wikipedia).
Right, so..... like I said.... Plato was very similar to Islam on that particular epistemological question and then Locke went way off the deep end with the insane claim that we are just born as a blank slate.
By the way, even the scientist Steven Pinker (who I believe is an atheist) put out a book arguing against the blank slate theory, just from a scientific perspective. The book is called The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. I think Steven Pinker would be very furious if you told him but.... I read his book I think when I was a teenager and his book actually supports what Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) told us over 1,400 years ago. It also aligns with Plato.
Anyways, I don't know if people are familiar with her but nowadays Judith Butler (who just happens to be Jewish) is very famous for her "gender theory"... "Butler is best known for her books Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990) and Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (1993), in which she challenges conventional notions of gender and develops her theory of gender performativity. This theory has had a major influence on feminist and queer scholarship.[8] Her works are often studied in film studies courses emphasizing gender studies and performativity in discourse."
Her "gender theory" basically boils down to the famous "gender is a social construct" nonsense that's very popular with some far-left types.
Anyways, so we can see (and btw we know the correct position on the particular epistemological issue due to Islam):
1- Plato (born in 5th century BC): Humans are born with certain innate knowledge
2- John Locke (born 29 August 1632): Humans are born as a blank slate
3- Judith Butler (born February 24, 1956): Humans are born as genderless blobs
so what can see here?
Al-Zubair ibn ‘Adi reported: We came to Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, and we complained to him of what we suffered from the ruler Al-Hajjaj. Anas said, “Be patient, for an era will not come upon but that what comes after is worse, until you meet your Lord. I heard it from your Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.”
Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6657
https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2014/06/28/fitnah-worse-than-before/
Just as we may expect from the hadith recorded in Saheeh Bukhari, philosophy has tended to degenerate and go further and further off the deep end over time.
So that is a point that I would like to make about philosophy and that we can see. Philosophy has tended to go further and further off the deep end. If you're familiar with postmodernism, their epistemology is way, way off the deep end. They don't even accept that there is an objective truth (except for their philosophy, of course- thus, their philosophy is self-contradictory but they're so off in outer space they don't care).
he isn't a zealot then my apologies Omar.
