Ibn Khaldun and the Social Sciences by Javad Tabatabai

Ibn Khaldun and the Social Sciences by Javad Tabatabai

Arabic and European studies of Ibn Khaldun, the great medieval polymath, follow one of two paths. In one direction, scholars interpret his Prolegomena, written in 1377, as the point at which the new social sciences emerged. They identify Ibn Khaldun’s ‘new science of culture’ as sociology or as an ‘Islamic’ (or ‘Arab’) alternative to sociology. In the other direction, the interpretation of Khaldunian discourse is confined to the Islamic-Aristotelian paradigm of its time. The epistemological novelty of the Prolegomena is dismissed and the science of culture is perceived as a minor contribution to the Aristotelian curriculum.   Charting a different path, Javad Tabatabai’s highly original Ibn Khaldun and the Social Sciences is an inquiry into the condition of the im-possibility of the social sciences in the Islamic-Aristotelian paradigm. Rather than identifying the science of culture as a forerunner of, or alternative to, sociology, it investigates the Prolegomena within the epistemological framework established by the social sciences. Javad Tabatabai theorizes the condition of im-possibility of the ‘scientific revolution’ as the ‘epistemic obstacle’ to modernity in Islamic civilization. This theorization revisits Michel Foucault’s discussion of the condition of possibility of the human sciences in light of the history of Christian-Aristotelian thought and the broader French debates about epistemology from Bachelard to Althusser. Ibn Khaldun and the Social Science offers a critical theory of tradition and modernity in the Middle East, elaborating on a historical situation where social and human sciences emerged by the way of colonial and post-colonial translations of discourse from Europe, and in a historical and epistemological break with inherited traditions of knowledge. In this situation, Tabatabai highlights the significance of reactivating Ibn Khaldun’s critical reckoning with the limit of inherited traditions as the political-theological horizon of renewal.

"After Kant and Foucault, here is Javad Tabatabai’s version of What is Enlightenment? Tabatabai demonstrates that despite his undeniable genius, Ibn Khaldun, considered the founder of social sciences in the XIVth century, was unable to operate the critical revolution that his vision of science requiredMore than a book on Iran though, and a reflection on all its epistemological obstacles, Tabatabai's masterpiece offers a profound meditation on the creative resources that secretly hide behind any condition of impossibility."
Catherine Malabou, Professor of Philosophy, Kingston University

Javad Tabatabai was formerly Professor and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Tehran.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781509551361
ISBN 10	1509551360
Title	Ibn Khaldun and the Social Sciences
Author	Javad Tabatabai
Series	Critical South
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Year published	2024-11-01
Number of pages	414
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable