Arman Rahmim

In this work, we argue that science cannot be confined to predefined frameworks and methods, nor that it should be. We additionally examine how separating the contexts of discovery and justification in scientific theorizing is more myth than reality. We provide brief overview of such attempts including logical empiricism (with its central concept of verifiability) and critical rationalism (with its concept of falsifiability). Such prescriptive structures are not really applicable nor desirable in the practice and enterprise of science. We discuss how new theories and observation languages, coupled with opportunism and techniques of persuasion, are sustained in the face of even contradicting data. The purity of a framework that defines science is in fact inversely proportional to its truth and value. Science is ultimately messy and far from monolithic, and scientists differ vastly amongst themselves in their thoughts and practice. We also study the paradigm of Science as Being. We investigate works by influential thinkers of Being, who persistently ask the fundamental question of ontology on the of Being. Meaning here does not point to logical or analytic interpretation, but that upon which the primary project is projected, and that in terms of which something can be conceived in its possibility as what it is. The human-being in its authenticity, anticipatory resoluteness, ontological split-openness, and appropriation by Being, brings out unpredictable truths and sciences. Ultimately, science is what scientists do, not so much the other way around. This realization is claimed to be more meaningful than attempts by epistemic methods and regimes of truth to define science and stifle freedom. The human-being is open, futural, entangled, engaged, and in-a-dance. It stands in readiness for new openings, new paradigms, epochs, unconcealments of Being, and new sciences.

The present work focuses on the pre-logical realm from which different logics and paradigms are derived. It is a realm before us, fully sensed by us, yet unthought by us. We know it, are immersed in it, but do not think it. It defines us, prompts us, motivates us, reveals itself to us, yet remains concealed. Here we focus on commentaries by continental philosophers Nietzsche and Heidegger, as well as the Andalusian Muslim mystic Ibn Arabi in investigation of the pre-logical realm. Relationships between knowledge and power, in this context, are explored. In the light of resonating thoughts by above-mentioned thinkers, we elaborate and revisit laws of thought as well as multiple well-known ‘self-evident’ axioms such as principals of contradiction, identity, non-circular reasoning, and causality (to name a few), which can and should be always revisited, enabling new openings and singing of new paradigms.

Being “open-minded” is considered a definite virtue in today’s world. What does it mean to be open-minded? What we refer to as ‘openness’ in this writing moves beyond the ability to see and entertain other views. It cuts deep into both the intentionality and content of what one contemplates. This work focuses on ontological openness, reflecting parallel and resonating thoughts by prominent continental philosophers Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer. Though Gadamer appears after Heidegger, we find it fruitful to read Gadamer as leading to Heidegger. We compare their thoughts with those of Muslim mystics, focusing on the highly influential and ground-breaking thinker Ibn Arabi and thinkers in his tradition.

Martin Heidegger was reported to have considered his work Identity and Difference (based on two seminars delivered in 1957) to be “the most important thing he … published since [his magnum opus] Being and Time.” (Heidegger, 1969, 7) While Being and Time begins with the human being (Da- sein; being-there), aiming to proceed to an understanding of the Being of beings, in Identity and Difference the focus is on the very “relation” between the human being and Being. (Ibid., 8) The present work highlights the intertwined and entangled sameness/difference between beings and Being. This entanglement and belonging, as we shall see, is also one of the most foundational concepts and prominent themes by the renowned and highly influential Muslim mystic Ibn Arabi (1165-1240). We particularly focus on his important compendium of mystical teachings, Fusus al-Hikam (Bezels of Wisdom). We also touch upon the sameness/difference of thoughts between these two thinkers.

In this work, we make the claim that artificial intelligence (AI) machines do not compare with human-beings in task performance. We explore how the human-being interacts with the world, with beings and the being of beings, and how it circumspects reality. We argue that AI arrives on the scene too late; or just on-time-enough to perform a given task assigned to it, as extension of the human-being. We discuss that it is short-sighted to claim that AI will exceed all levels of human intelligence. We particularly focus on works by continental thinkers, and how problematic assumptions on the nature of reality (including the ontological assumption) have led to faulty paradigms comparing the human-being with AI.