The Rise of Modern Science: Islam and the West

This article looks at the discourse in the history and philosophy of science in both Islam and the West in the larger context of the discourse on modernity. A comparison is made between the discourses of science and modernity in the West and Islam so as to identify the similarities and differences in their outlooks. It also describes separately the discourse in both traditions, followed by an analysis of their similarities and differences. In the case of the discourse on Islamic philosophy of science, the ideas of Nasr, Naguib, al-Faruqi, and Sardar were discussed. Finally, it is concluded that the discourses on philosophy of science in both Western and Islamic intellectual traditions are prompted by the same factor, namely how to deal with the problems and challenges of modernity, which is substantively and symbolically related to science.