Abstract
This paper explores the function of historical epistemology in the thought of Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) and Mohammed ‘Abed al-Jabri (1935–2010). Attributing thought with a particular function challenges our tendency to explain the development of thought in other socio-historical contexts in terms of mere conceptual influence. Available English-language literature on al-Jabri commonly references Bachelard’s concept of epistemological rupture as a source of inspiration. Though the reference is astute, this term remains poorly understood and has long been overshadowed by Thomas Kuhn’s notion of ‘paradigm shift’. The broader function of Bachelard’s thought as a renegotiation of time, place, subject, and reason in the natural sciences has been largely neglected in historiographies of the philosophy of science outside of France. This paper emphasizes the level of insight and ingenuity with which al-Jabri employs the function of Bachelard’s epistemology by re-interpreting it within the framework of his own socio-historical context. Far from reducing al-Jabri’s thought to a mere programmatic reproduction of French thought, I suggest that al-Jabri was among the most astute interpreters of this long-misunderstood theorist.
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- 1.
Most controversially perhaps, is his thesis that the authoritarian style of rule in the Arab countries of the East (al-mashreq) is the legacy of an irrational epistemic model—known as ‘irfān—inherited from pre-Islamic Persian political thought. Jurj Tarabishi, a Syrian intellectual, took such exception to this thesis that he authored a four-volume counter critique: the aptly-titled Critique of the Critique of Arab Reason.
- 2.
(1332–1406): Fourteenth-century critical historian and social theorist of North Africa, whose Prolegomena (al-muqaddimah)—the first of seven books of his history of North Africa (kitāb al-‘ibar)—remains to this day a topic of interest for orientalists, sociologists, philosophers, and historians alike.
- 3.
Otherwise known in the latinized form ‘Averroes’ (1126–1198): Twelfth-century jurist and polymath whose commentaries on the works of Aristotle were crucial for revitalizing European interest in Greek thought.
- 4.
The Formation of Arab Reason (takwīn al-‘aql al-‘arabi) 1982; The Construction of Arab Reason (bunyat al-‘aql al-‘arabi) 1984; Arab Political Reason (al-‘aql as-siyasi al-‘arabi) 1990; and Arab Ethical Reason (al-‘aql al-akhlaqi al-‘arabi) 2001.
- 5.
There remains a glaring omission in al-Jabri scholarship with respect to his earlier works from the 1960s and 1970s: Lessons in Philosophy (1966), Lessons in Islamic Thought (1967); Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (1977); The Thought of Ibn Khaldun: Social Cohesion and the State (1971); and a general critique of the Moroccan educational system Illuminations on the Problem of Education in Morocco (1973). I see this omission as having contributed to a great deal of controversy over al-Jabri scholarship, and currently seek to fill this lacuna in my ongoing thesis.
- 6.
Tiles (1984), p. xi.
- 7.
This work is essentially a collection of selected texts surveying the epistemological development of scientific thought with a particular emphasis on the modern era. The relative lack of interest in this work for his thought is perhaps the result of its perception as a mere pedagogical instrument, and not a work of philosophy proper. However, when we consider that al-Jabri himself selected both the texts and excerpts as well as provided introductions to each chapter and commentary throughout, its acquires a philosophical value as a translation of and commentary on modern science. From this perspective, it is easy to understand al-Jabri’s intense interest in Averroes, the fourteenth-century commentator and “cultural mediator” of Aristotle.
- 8.
(1838–1897) Anti-colonial agitator and early theorist of political Islam.
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(1849–1905) Islamic Jurist and early Modernist thinker who strove to reform Islamic education at al-Azhar University in Egypt.
- 10.
Boullata (1990), p. 14.
- 11.
Kassab (2010), p. 118.
- 12.
Boullata (1990), p. 17.
- 13.
Abu-Rabi (1996), p. 44.
- 14.
To be sure, al-Jabri’s approach was itself clearly ideologically motivated, but he freely admits this in his own writings. For a detailed discussion of this topic see Al-Sayyed (2001), p. 45
- 15.
Gaebel (1995), p. 12.
- 16.
Al-Jabri (1999), p. 24.
- 17.
Bachelard was also a prodigious theorist on the poetic imagination. There has been much debate over the extent to which his interests in the philosophy of science and literary critique are reconcilable. Further reading on this topic can be found in Lecourt (1974).
- 18.
Bachelard (1928), pp. 60–61.
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(My emphasis) “On connaît contre une connaissance antérieure”.
- 20.
Bachelard (1938), p. 15.
- 21.
Chimisso (2015), p. 4.
- 22.
In the French title, the double-meaning of “formation” and “education” is preserved. Al-Jabri’s apparent homage to Bachelard in the title of his 1984 work The Formation of Arab Reason (takwīn al-‘aql al-‘arabi) loses the secondary significance in both English and Arabic. This is important, because Bachelard was very concerned with good practices in scientific pedagogy, and al-Jabri was a life-long educator who seems to have been equally inspired by Bachelard’s musings on education.
- 23.
Bachelard (1938), p. 14.
- 24.
Bachelard (1938), p. 23.
- 25.
Bachelard (1938), p. 23.
- 26.
Bachelard (1990), p. 20.
- 27.
El yaznasni (2002), p. 17.
- 28.
El yaznasni (2002), p. 45.
- 29.
El yaznasni (2002), p. 18.
- 30.
Among those thinkers whom he does critique by name are Émile Méyerson, Henri Bergson and Henri Poincaré.
- 31.
Broady (1997), p. 8.
- 32.
Broady (1997), p. 8.
- 33.
Tiles (1984), p. 34.
- 34.
Broady (1997), p. 8.
- 35.
Bachelard (1938), p. 15.
- 36.
‘Problematic’, here referring to a set of interrelated issues, is another ubiquitous term originally coined by Bachelard, and used extensively by al-Jabri.
- 37.
Bachelard (1994), p. 131.
- 38.
Bachelard (1994), p. 132.
- 39.
Bachelard (1994), p. 132.
- 40.
Al-Jabri (2011), p. 463.
- 41.
Al-Jabri (2011), p. 463.
- 42.
Al-Jabri (2011), p. 463.
- 43.
Al-Jabri (2006), pp. 16–19.
- 44.
Al-Jabri (2006), p. 21.
- 45.
Al-Jabri (2006), p. 21.
- 46.
(‘illa ‘idha kāna ma’an min ṭabi’a wāḥida) Al-Jabri (2006), p. 21.
- 47.
Al-Jabri (2006), pp. 22–23.
- 48.
Francis Bacon, Novum Organon, Book 1, Aph. 14.
- 49.
To be clear, al-Jabri does not reject the significance of the period of the Rashidun (the rightly-guided Caliphs) for Islamic thought. He rejects, rather, the ahistorical and decontextualized understanding of this period which is the epistemological foundation of Islamic fundamentalism.
- 50.
Al-Jabri (2006), p. 24.
- 51.
Al-Jabri (2006), p. 24.
- 52.
Al-Jabri (2006), p. 25.
- 53.
Al-Jabri (2006), p. 25.
- 54.
Ibid., p. 25.
- 55.
I am borrowing Nietzsche’s characterization of the “Münchhausian audacity” employed by him in Beyond Good and Evil: “Sich selbst aus dem Sumpf des Nichts an den Haaren ins Dasein zu ziehn”.
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Kynes, J. (2020). The Function of Bachelardian Epistemology in the Post-colonial Project of Mohammed ‘Abed al-Jabri. In: Hensold, J., Kynes, J., Öhlmann, P., Rau, V., Schinagl, R., Taleb, A. (eds) Religion in Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41388-0_12
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