I thought this would enlighten Rinie a bit on the issue she was raising recently, about the classification of knowledge - and subsequently the ranking of courses/universities. She was a bit upset with the perception shown by some university officials/& ministers (?) regarding current higher education state of reasoning: that some course are irrelevent and mismatched; thus the courses need to be reviewed.
Personally, I think this has got to do with the officials/ministers prior learning experiences. No doubt, they are knowledgeable, they got all the info needed - that they can utilise in meetings, seminars and even during parliamentary debates - apart from the newspapers and what not. Its just that they dont really understand the importance of history and philosophy. They may be good at something, and they are experts in their very own disciplines - the reason why they are called intelligentsia (distinguish this from 'intellectuals) - but the intelellectual traditition, the history, philosophy and classification of knowledge has long been ignored deliberately.
I thought Prof Osman Bakar's view on this is self-explained:
"The lowest of the philosophical sciences is natural sciences (al-'ilm al-tabi'i) because its subject-matter is comprised of terrestrial bodies, which posses the lowest rank in the hierarchy of beings."
In view of that, S.H. Nasr (in, Science & civilisation in Islam) puts it exceedingly well by saying,
"The link between intellect and reason is never broken, except in the individual ventures of a handful thinkers, among whom there are few that could properly be called scientists. The intellect remains the principle of reason; and the exercise of reason, if it is healthy and normal, should naturally lead to the intellect."
Till then, bye.
