Formulation of the Claim
Religious reason is linked to the reason of the human and social sciences, and cannot be understood apart from it.
Explanation
For Arkoun, this connection is understood as an acknowledgment that the study of religion needs a broader horizon than inward reading alone. The human and social sciences give the understanding of religion a critical dimension that illuminates the workings of religious reason and its fields of operation.
This implies that religious reason is not treated as a closed whole, or as something radically separate from the tools of modern knowledge in the study of human beings and society. Rather, the point is to place it in a relationship of understanding and interpretation with these sciences, rather than relying only on its internal references.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom appears within Arkoun’s call to reconsider the conditions for understanding religious discourse, by linking it to the methods of the human and social sciences. It converges with related theses in the book that affirm that a critical reading of religion requires overcoming the epistemic isolation that confines it within a closed traditional logic.
Limits of the Claim
The atom does not mean that religious reason is reduced to the human and social sciences, nor does it deny the specificity of its religious subject matter. Nor does it imply a final resolution regarding how these sciences are to be applied; it simply affirms the principle that there is a connection between them and it.
Brief Evidence
This common view among Orientalist researchers expresses an idealized abstract analysis that assumes it is possible to understand ideas and cultural works regardless of their social origins and foundations. This is impossible, for there is no thought in a vacuum, and no thought exists except as it is rooted in some environment
Related Links
- religious reason
- the human and social sciences
- religion