Ibrahim Shogar - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Ibrahim Shogar
IIUM Medical Journal Malaysia, 2018
The purpose of this paper is to advocate for a holistic medical philosophy that is capable of acc... more The purpose of this paper is to advocate for a holistic medical philosophy that is capable of accommodating various models of medical explanations. Such a comprehensive and integrated approach of medical philosophy should be capable of addressing, the ethical, epistemological and metaphysical aspects of medical research and practice. The basic presupposition of the paper is that the Islamic principles on health promotion can play an important role in developing such a holistic medical philosophy. Adopting the analytic method, the paper investigates the three major frameworks of explanation that dominated the history of medical philosophy: (a) the humoral model that is based on balance of the humors; (b) the biocentric model which is based on causal explanation and defines disease in descriptive biological terms; and (c) the postmodern or meta-biocentric model that concerned mainly with the medical philosophy and aims at promoting the holistic approach. This paper, also, investigates...
This article investigates the philosophical foundations of modern bioengineering to articulate it... more This article investigates the philosophical foundations of modern bioengineering to articulate its rational framework. Engineering as an ultimate mechanism to transform knowledge into practice is essential for both physical and biological sciences. It reduces data, concepts, and designs to pictorial forms. Integration of engineering with newly emerging biosciences, has presented a unique opportunity to overcome the major challenges that faced by environmental ecology and human health. To harness potentials of modern bioengineering and establish a sustainable foundation for green technology, scientists and engineers should be acquainted with the normative questions of science and technology. Beside acquiring the general principles of scientific research and identification of the intrinsic goals of the endeavour, philosophy of bioengineering exposes scientists to both the descriptive ‘how’ questions of the physical world as well as the normative ‘why’ questions of values. Such an inte...
This paper discusses the human ability to make scientific discoveries and the ethical implication... more This paper discusses the human ability to make scientific discoveries and the ethical implications of scientific progress in the context of Islamic epistemology. The aim is to introduce Islamic epistemology as the basis of an Islamic philosophy of science. The paper explains that in Islamic epistemology, revelation is the basic source of knowledge, and this knowledge is established by human beings through description (which answers the question "What?"), and interpretation (which answers the question "Why?"). In the Islamic philosophy of science, both aspects of knowledge are integrated; for the Muslim scientist, the main objective is to establish not only the facts of the physical world, but also, and more importantly, the purpose for their existence. The ethical dimension of this approach is rooted in the Islamic worldview that all natural phenomena are clear signs leading to cognition of the Creator. The paper also discusses the compatibility of Islam and science in terms of Islam's positive attitude towards scientific inquiry, its view that the purpose of human curiosity is to motivate creative thinking, its prioritising of the empirical approach, and its assertion that there is no contradiction between modern scientific discoveries and the knowledge revealed to the Prophet (s.a.w.).
Revelation and Science, 2011
The role played by science and technology for the development of human society is crucial in the ... more The role played by science and technology for the development of human society is crucial in the modern age. Contemporary Muslim societies, without scientific thinking, have little chance to progress. The quality of live, in the globalized world, is based on the intellectual value of the mind. The Holy Qur`an launched its glorious mission by "Iqra" due to the fact that the quality of thought directly affects the quality of action; and both of them affect the quality of live. At the opening of its golden age around the eighth century, and nearly for a thousand years, the Islamic civilization remained creative in science, technology and arts. The achievements of Muslim scientists surpassed all their contemporaries. The scientific worldview of Islam was the inspiring force of their inquiry and pursuit of knowledge. At that time the Muslim world was ranged from Spain and Morocco, through Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad, to Persia and North India. However, starting around the sixteenth century, the Islamic civilization began to wane; losing ground to other nations. Today, Muslim communities are struggling for development within the global challenges, especially scientific and technological challenges. There are many questions that need to be addressed by modern Muslim intellectuals: (1) What were the main factors behind the flourishing of science and technology in the early history of Islamic civilization? (2) What were the main causes of decadence of the scientific thinking? (3) How could Muslims restore their creative thinking again? The main objective of this work is to shed some light upon these questions.
Fakulti Perubatan dan Sains Kesihatan, UPM, Jun 4, 2021
The pragmatic nature of bioanalytical science, a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry, is incre... more The pragmatic nature of bioanalytical science, a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry, is increasingly becoming central to address the practical needs of human community. It seems very potential to play a major role in many fields of industrial, environmental and medical applications. It nevertheless, encompasses various forms of analytical chemistry, such as: bioanalysis for medical and clinical purposes, especially in the pharmaceutical industry; quality assurance in food industry and products; bioanalysis for environmental and ecosystem; and bioanalysis for forensic purposes. The practical part of all these sciences depends mainly on bioanalytical chemistry, which is based on techniques and technologies characterized by accuracy, preciseness and honesty. To harness potentials of the newly growing science of bioanalysis, thus, the analytical chemists need to address, not only matters of method and techniques, but also the ethical implications of bioanalysis, especially the foren...
Due to its pragmatic nature, bioanalytical science, a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry, is ... more Due to its pragmatic nature, bioanalytical science, a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry, is increasingly becoming a central point to address the practical needs of modern community life. It seems to be very promising and potential to play a major role in many sectors of industrial, environmental and medical applications. It nevertheless, encompasses various forms of analytical chemistry, such as: (i) bioanalysis for medical and clinical purposes, especially in the pharmaceutical industry; (ii) quality assurance purposes in food industry and products; (iii) bioanalysis for environmental and ecosystem; and (iv) bioanalysis for forensic purposes. The practical part of all these sciences depends on bioanalytical chemistry, which is based on techniques and technologies that are characterized by accuracy, preciseness and honesty. To harness potentials of the newly growing science of bioanalysis, the analytical chemists need to address, not only matters of accuracy and preciseness of ...
This paper explores implications of organ transplantation on identity and body integrity. It inve... more This paper explores implications of organ transplantation on identity and body integrity. It investigates how advancements in transplant technologies can affect and reshape our conception of identity at individual and social levels. The question of identity as a distinctive code for every organism is increasingly becoming important due to the advanced biomedical technologies and its legal, ethical, and social implications. Modes of organ transplantation, in this paper are divided into two major types (i) restorative and (ii) regenerative. Both types have important implications on conception of identity, at various levels, from both biological and social perspectives. While highlighting all these dimensions, this article focuses on implications of restorative organ transplantation on identity based on four specific cases, which are: (i) hand transplantation, (ii) facial transplantation, (iii) reproductive organ transplantation, and (iv) head / body transplantation. Investigating all ...
Healthcare professionals are making a considerable effort to deal with the impacts of our stressf... more Healthcare professionals are making a considerable effort to deal with the impacts of our stressful conditions caused by the challenges of the globalised world’s competitive and busy life. The rapid changes in social and environmental conditions are also worsening the situation. Anxiety, stress and depression, which affect the mind, are the typical outcomes of such situation. These facts have shifted the attention of medical research and practice towards the notion of “positive mental health” rather than the theory of “mental illness”, which dominated this field. The World Health Organization (WHO) is contributing to develop this notion. In her work ‘Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health’, Marie Jahoda (1958) identifies serval approaches in defining positive mental health. The common factor of all such approaches has a resilient mind that enables individuals to cope with the normal stresses of life to realize their potentials and work productively to contribute to community dev...
The major aim of this paper is to highlight the general characteristics of Islamic philosophy of ... more The major aim of this paper is to highlight the general characteristics of Islamic philosophy of education. The basic assumption of the paper is that the Islamic philosophy of education is relevant to the needs of globalizing society, due to certain factors. For that purpose, the four basic educational questions on the recipient, the content, objectives, and the method are discussed. The major problem of Islamic education, according to the paper, is that there is lack of awareness on basic characteristics of Islamic educational philosophy; therefore, it was hard for Muslim intellectuals to deal properly with results of educational problems such as religious extremism and secularism in the Muslim communities; let alone to attract the attention of global community to the advantages of Islamic education system as an effect method to produce a balanced personality. For example, the steering committee of the First World Conference on Muslim Education, which held in Makkah in 1977, emphasizes that: It is strongly felt that it is necessary for the Muslims to have a truly Islamic education. And education can be truly Islamic only if Muslim scholars can produce Islamic concepts for all branches of human knowledge and Muslim countries disseminate these concepts among Muslim intellectuals and students by getting their mind purified of all non-Islamic ideas and by making them more and more conscious of the significance and utility of these concepts through research projects, textbooks and teacher training programmes (Proceedings of Makkah Conference, p 10) 1. More than four decades have passed since this statement was, but our students of the higher learning, especially in science and technology, are still depending only on textbooks which produced by others. So, the important question is what is the problem? This paper has attempted to answer this basic question.
It is a basic psychological premise that human being acts the way he thinks; in other words, our ... more It is a basic psychological premise that human being acts the way he thinks; in other words, our acts explain the way we think. This premise emphasizes the assumption that problems of Muslim societies are mainly result of the prevailing thoughts which in turn are production of education philosophies. Whitehead emphasizes that the mentality of an epoch springs from the view of the world, which is in fact, dominant in the educated sections of the community in question. Hence, the contemporary global crises, especially in the Muslim world, have shifted the attention once again to the question of education and initiated many studies on this topic. The proper understanding of such problems, however, might not be possible without understanding the underlying philosophy of education, which deals with the major educational questions about the recipient, the content, and goals of education. The objective of this paper is to highlight the education philosophy of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as an example of new model of Islamic education of higher learning that integrates knowledge with values and modernity with classic. The paper is designed to provide the basic information on IIUM philosophy, aiming at creating awareness on significance of this topic. It does not review or evaluate the theory of 'Islamization and integration of knowledge' (IOK); rather it presents the structure and the general framework of IIUM educational philosophy and its implications on practical challenges of modern Muslim societies in the globalizing world. This exposition would be in a historical context of Islamic education and development of its reformation thought.
Background: Understanding the principal causes of ‘change’ in social phenomena, and predicting it... more Background: Understanding the principal causes of ‘change’ in social phenomena, and predicting its future directions is necessary for change management and controlled social development. The complex nature of the field, however, has been the major problem to achieving this noble goal. The present paper presupposes that smart application of principles of systems biology on social phenomena can contribute in addressing the two major problems of ‘change management’ in social sciences, which are prediction and control. Objective: This paper aims to explore how application of principles of systems biology on social phenomenon can contribute to address the above two problems of change management. The method of physical sciences has been successful in introducing mankind to understand changes of material world due to its measurable conclusions. However, philosophers of sociology are still facing challenges to deal with the most fundamental questions of the field, such as the nature of the governing principles of social change and how it can contribute for better change management? Methodology: The method adopted in the paper is theoretical and analytical in nature. Principles of systems biology will be investigated and formulated. The gap between physical and social sciences is increasingly collapsing due to conclusions of Quantum Mechanics, thus, this paper adopts the integrated method of analysis. The paper, also, analyzes the key concepts, such as “social change” and “systems biology”. The various perspectives of sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers of social sciences will be presented. Results & Conclusions: The paper concludes that for proper management of social change, social scientists need sufficient data on social phenomena, mathematics, and effective technologies for analysis. Application of systems biology can assist on this part. The paper, also, suggests that understanding the governing principles of social phenomena, such as cultures, norms, religion and moral values, is necessary to predict the future directions of social change
IIUM Medical Journal Malaysia, 2018
The purpose of this paper is to advocate for a holistic medical philosophy that is capable of acc... more The purpose of this paper is to advocate for a holistic medical philosophy that is capable of accommodating various models of medical explanations. Such a comprehensive and integrated approach of medical philosophy should be capable of addressing, the ethical, epistemological and metaphysical aspects of medical research and practice. The basic presupposition of the paper is that the Islamic principles on health promotion can play an important role in developing such a holistic medical philosophy. Adopting the analytic method, the paper investigates the three major frameworks of explanation that dominated the history of medical philosophy: (a) the humoral model that is based on balance of the humors; (b) the biocentric model which is based on causal explanation and defines disease in descriptive biological terms; and (c) the postmodern or meta-biocentric model that concerned mainly with the medical philosophy and aims at promoting the holistic approach. This paper, also, investigates...
This article investigates the philosophical foundations of modern bioengineering to articulate it... more This article investigates the philosophical foundations of modern bioengineering to articulate its rational framework. Engineering as an ultimate mechanism to transform knowledge into practice is essential for both physical and biological sciences. It reduces data, concepts, and designs to pictorial forms. Integration of engineering with newly emerging biosciences, has presented a unique opportunity to overcome the major challenges that faced by environmental ecology and human health. To harness potentials of modern bioengineering and establish a sustainable foundation for green technology, scientists and engineers should be acquainted with the normative questions of science and technology. Beside acquiring the general principles of scientific research and identification of the intrinsic goals of the endeavour, philosophy of bioengineering exposes scientists to both the descriptive ‘how’ questions of the physical world as well as the normative ‘why’ questions of values. Such an inte...
This paper discusses the human ability to make scientific discoveries and the ethical implication... more This paper discusses the human ability to make scientific discoveries and the ethical implications of scientific progress in the context of Islamic epistemology. The aim is to introduce Islamic epistemology as the basis of an Islamic philosophy of science. The paper explains that in Islamic epistemology, revelation is the basic source of knowledge, and this knowledge is established by human beings through description (which answers the question "What?"), and interpretation (which answers the question "Why?"). In the Islamic philosophy of science, both aspects of knowledge are integrated; for the Muslim scientist, the main objective is to establish not only the facts of the physical world, but also, and more importantly, the purpose for their existence. The ethical dimension of this approach is rooted in the Islamic worldview that all natural phenomena are clear signs leading to cognition of the Creator. The paper also discusses the compatibility of Islam and science in terms of Islam's positive attitude towards scientific inquiry, its view that the purpose of human curiosity is to motivate creative thinking, its prioritising of the empirical approach, and its assertion that there is no contradiction between modern scientific discoveries and the knowledge revealed to the Prophet (s.a.w.).
Revelation and Science, 2011
The role played by science and technology for the development of human society is crucial in the ... more The role played by science and technology for the development of human society is crucial in the modern age. Contemporary Muslim societies, without scientific thinking, have little chance to progress. The quality of live, in the globalized world, is based on the intellectual value of the mind. The Holy Qur`an launched its glorious mission by "Iqra" due to the fact that the quality of thought directly affects the quality of action; and both of them affect the quality of live. At the opening of its golden age around the eighth century, and nearly for a thousand years, the Islamic civilization remained creative in science, technology and arts. The achievements of Muslim scientists surpassed all their contemporaries. The scientific worldview of Islam was the inspiring force of their inquiry and pursuit of knowledge. At that time the Muslim world was ranged from Spain and Morocco, through Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad, to Persia and North India. However, starting around the sixteenth century, the Islamic civilization began to wane; losing ground to other nations. Today, Muslim communities are struggling for development within the global challenges, especially scientific and technological challenges. There are many questions that need to be addressed by modern Muslim intellectuals: (1) What were the main factors behind the flourishing of science and technology in the early history of Islamic civilization? (2) What were the main causes of decadence of the scientific thinking? (3) How could Muslims restore their creative thinking again? The main objective of this work is to shed some light upon these questions.
Fakulti Perubatan dan Sains Kesihatan, UPM, Jun 4, 2021
The pragmatic nature of bioanalytical science, a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry, is incre... more The pragmatic nature of bioanalytical science, a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry, is increasingly becoming central to address the practical needs of human community. It seems very potential to play a major role in many fields of industrial, environmental and medical applications. It nevertheless, encompasses various forms of analytical chemistry, such as: bioanalysis for medical and clinical purposes, especially in the pharmaceutical industry; quality assurance in food industry and products; bioanalysis for environmental and ecosystem; and bioanalysis for forensic purposes. The practical part of all these sciences depends mainly on bioanalytical chemistry, which is based on techniques and technologies characterized by accuracy, preciseness and honesty. To harness potentials of the newly growing science of bioanalysis, thus, the analytical chemists need to address, not only matters of method and techniques, but also the ethical implications of bioanalysis, especially the foren...
Due to its pragmatic nature, bioanalytical science, a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry, is ... more Due to its pragmatic nature, bioanalytical science, a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry, is increasingly becoming a central point to address the practical needs of modern community life. It seems to be very promising and potential to play a major role in many sectors of industrial, environmental and medical applications. It nevertheless, encompasses various forms of analytical chemistry, such as: (i) bioanalysis for medical and clinical purposes, especially in the pharmaceutical industry; (ii) quality assurance purposes in food industry and products; (iii) bioanalysis for environmental and ecosystem; and (iv) bioanalysis for forensic purposes. The practical part of all these sciences depends on bioanalytical chemistry, which is based on techniques and technologies that are characterized by accuracy, preciseness and honesty. To harness potentials of the newly growing science of bioanalysis, the analytical chemists need to address, not only matters of accuracy and preciseness of ...
This paper explores implications of organ transplantation on identity and body integrity. It inve... more This paper explores implications of organ transplantation on identity and body integrity. It investigates how advancements in transplant technologies can affect and reshape our conception of identity at individual and social levels. The question of identity as a distinctive code for every organism is increasingly becoming important due to the advanced biomedical technologies and its legal, ethical, and social implications. Modes of organ transplantation, in this paper are divided into two major types (i) restorative and (ii) regenerative. Both types have important implications on conception of identity, at various levels, from both biological and social perspectives. While highlighting all these dimensions, this article focuses on implications of restorative organ transplantation on identity based on four specific cases, which are: (i) hand transplantation, (ii) facial transplantation, (iii) reproductive organ transplantation, and (iv) head / body transplantation. Investigating all ...
Healthcare professionals are making a considerable effort to deal with the impacts of our stressf... more Healthcare professionals are making a considerable effort to deal with the impacts of our stressful conditions caused by the challenges of the globalised world’s competitive and busy life. The rapid changes in social and environmental conditions are also worsening the situation. Anxiety, stress and depression, which affect the mind, are the typical outcomes of such situation. These facts have shifted the attention of medical research and practice towards the notion of “positive mental health” rather than the theory of “mental illness”, which dominated this field. The World Health Organization (WHO) is contributing to develop this notion. In her work ‘Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health’, Marie Jahoda (1958) identifies serval approaches in defining positive mental health. The common factor of all such approaches has a resilient mind that enables individuals to cope with the normal stresses of life to realize their potentials and work productively to contribute to community dev...
The major aim of this paper is to highlight the general characteristics of Islamic philosophy of ... more The major aim of this paper is to highlight the general characteristics of Islamic philosophy of education. The basic assumption of the paper is that the Islamic philosophy of education is relevant to the needs of globalizing society, due to certain factors. For that purpose, the four basic educational questions on the recipient, the content, objectives, and the method are discussed. The major problem of Islamic education, according to the paper, is that there is lack of awareness on basic characteristics of Islamic educational philosophy; therefore, it was hard for Muslim intellectuals to deal properly with results of educational problems such as religious extremism and secularism in the Muslim communities; let alone to attract the attention of global community to the advantages of Islamic education system as an effect method to produce a balanced personality. For example, the steering committee of the First World Conference on Muslim Education, which held in Makkah in 1977, emphasizes that: It is strongly felt that it is necessary for the Muslims to have a truly Islamic education. And education can be truly Islamic only if Muslim scholars can produce Islamic concepts for all branches of human knowledge and Muslim countries disseminate these concepts among Muslim intellectuals and students by getting their mind purified of all non-Islamic ideas and by making them more and more conscious of the significance and utility of these concepts through research projects, textbooks and teacher training programmes (Proceedings of Makkah Conference, p 10) 1. More than four decades have passed since this statement was, but our students of the higher learning, especially in science and technology, are still depending only on textbooks which produced by others. So, the important question is what is the problem? This paper has attempted to answer this basic question.
It is a basic psychological premise that human being acts the way he thinks; in other words, our ... more It is a basic psychological premise that human being acts the way he thinks; in other words, our acts explain the way we think. This premise emphasizes the assumption that problems of Muslim societies are mainly result of the prevailing thoughts which in turn are production of education philosophies. Whitehead emphasizes that the mentality of an epoch springs from the view of the world, which is in fact, dominant in the educated sections of the community in question. Hence, the contemporary global crises, especially in the Muslim world, have shifted the attention once again to the question of education and initiated many studies on this topic. The proper understanding of such problems, however, might not be possible without understanding the underlying philosophy of education, which deals with the major educational questions about the recipient, the content, and goals of education. The objective of this paper is to highlight the education philosophy of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as an example of new model of Islamic education of higher learning that integrates knowledge with values and modernity with classic. The paper is designed to provide the basic information on IIUM philosophy, aiming at creating awareness on significance of this topic. It does not review or evaluate the theory of 'Islamization and integration of knowledge' (IOK); rather it presents the structure and the general framework of IIUM educational philosophy and its implications on practical challenges of modern Muslim societies in the globalizing world. This exposition would be in a historical context of Islamic education and development of its reformation thought.
Background: Understanding the principal causes of ‘change’ in social phenomena, and predicting it... more Background: Understanding the principal causes of ‘change’ in social phenomena, and predicting its future directions is necessary for change management and controlled social development. The complex nature of the field, however, has been the major problem to achieving this noble goal. The present paper presupposes that smart application of principles of systems biology on social phenomena can contribute in addressing the two major problems of ‘change management’ in social sciences, which are prediction and control. Objective: This paper aims to explore how application of principles of systems biology on social phenomenon can contribute to address the above two problems of change management. The method of physical sciences has been successful in introducing mankind to understand changes of material world due to its measurable conclusions. However, philosophers of sociology are still facing challenges to deal with the most fundamental questions of the field, such as the nature of the governing principles of social change and how it can contribute for better change management? Methodology: The method adopted in the paper is theoretical and analytical in nature. Principles of systems biology will be investigated and formulated. The gap between physical and social sciences is increasingly collapsing due to conclusions of Quantum Mechanics, thus, this paper adopts the integrated method of analysis. The paper, also, analyzes the key concepts, such as “social change” and “systems biology”. The various perspectives of sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers of social sciences will be presented. Results & Conclusions: The paper concludes that for proper management of social change, social scientists need sufficient data on social phenomena, mathematics, and effective technologies for analysis. Application of systems biology can assist on this part. The paper, also, suggests that understanding the governing principles of social phenomena, such as cultures, norms, religion and moral values, is necessary to predict the future directions of social change