Philosophy is the only discipline which, by its own
definition, embodies the quest for knowledge and
understanding of the nature and meaning of the
universe as well as of human life.
But after a long search of more than 5000 years, to
which the greatest minds of human history have
been bent, it has failed to provide any definite
answer to such questions.
Bertrand Russell was a great thinker of the present
world, whose life spanned almost a century. He
spent almost his entire life in reading and writing
on philosophical subjects. But he failed to evolve
any credible ideology. Because of this failure, one of
his commentators remarks that “he was a
philosopher of no philosophy.” This is true not only
of Bertrand Russell, but also of all other
philosophers. Individually or jointly, they have
failed to produce any philosophical system which
might have provided a sound answer to the human
dilemma.
The main concern of philosophy was to make a
unified picture of the world, including human life.
But the long history of philosophy shows that this
still remains an unfulfilled dream. The Encyclopaedia
Britannica in its 27-page article on philosophy and
its history admits that there seems to be no
possibility of philosophical unification. The article
concludes with this remark:
In the contemporary philosophical universe,
multiplicity and division still reign. (EB, Vol.
14:274 [1984])
Why this failure? This failure is not of a chance or
intermittent nature, but seems to be a permanent
feature of the philosophical approach to reality. The
Qur’an has drawn our attention to this fact, saying:
They put questions to you about the Spirit.
Say: “The Spirit is at the command of my Lord
and of knowledge you have been given only a
little.” (17:85)
This means that the problem stems from man’s own
shortcomings. The philosophical explanation of the
world requires unbounded knowledge, whereas
man has had only limited knowledge bestowed
upon him. Due to these intellectual constraints man
cannot uncover the secrets of the world on his own.
So it is not the lack of research, but the blinkered
state of the human mind, that stands as a
permanent obstacle in the philosopher’s path to
reality. It is this human inadequacy which explains
the unexplainable.
For example, suppose, in order to unveil reality and
the law of life, the enquirer starts from a study of
human settlements. After a detailed survey, he
comes to the conclusion that since society is
composed of human beings, he had better focus on
the individual, and so he studies human
psychology. But there he finds that, despite
extensive research in this field it has resulted in
nothing but intellectual chaos.
He ultimately finds that no unified system emerges
from psychology. In despair of finding any solution
to the problem, he turns to biology. His in-depth
study of biology leads him to the conclusion that
the whole human system is based on certain
chemical actions and reactions, so, for a proper
understanding of the human body he begins to
study physics and chemistry. This study leads him
to the discovery that, in the last analysis, man like
other things, is composed of atoms. So, he takes to
the study of nuclear science, only to arrive at the
conclusion that the atom is composed of nothing
but incomprehensible waves of electrons.
At this point man, as well as the universe, is seen as
nothing but, in the words of a scientist, a mad dance
of electrons. A philosopher ostensibly begins his
study from a basis of knowledge, but ultimately
comes to a point where there is nothing but the
universal darkness of bewilderment. Thus a 5000-
year journey of philosophy has brought the sorry
conclusion that, due to its limitations, it is simply
not in a position to unfold the secrets of the
universe.
It is evident from the several thousand year-long
history of philosophical inquiry that philosophy has
failed to give any satisfactory answer to questions
concerning reality. Moreover, there is a growing
body of evidence that philosophy is inherently
incompetent for the task undertaken by it. The
need, therefore, is to find some alternative
discipline that may help us reach our desired
intellectual goal.
--Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
( Ref - Search For Truth )
