SHAFAQNA- The book “Methods, Methodologies, and Perspectives in the Humanities and Social Sciences with Particular Reference to Islamic Studies: A Critical Rationalist Interpretation” by Dr Ali Paya is published in 2022 by ICAS Press.
The ICAS (The Islamic College) Press in London has just published a major new book in the field of methodology entitled:
Methods, Methodologies, and Perspectives in the Humanities and Social Sciences
With Particular Reference to Islamic Studies: A Critical Rationalist Interpretation
(London: ICAS Press, 2022, xxi + 730 pp, paperback)
The author, Professor Ali Paya, is Professor of Philosophy at the Islamic College in London (academic partner of Middlesex University). he is also Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the National Institute for Science Policy in Tehran.
The book critically covers all the major methodologies in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) and those developed by Muslim scholars to study the classic Islamic sciences. It also introduces a wide range of methods used in the HSS. Since Islamic Studies is part of the HSS, all the methods presented in this book are also applicable to Islamic studies. Moreover, a number of methods which have been developed by Muslim scholars to facilitate their dealings with various topics in classic Islamic sciences are discussed in the book.
Methods, Methodologies, and Perspectives in the Humanities and Social Sciences is different from the majority of the books on methodology which are available in the market in several ways: its general outlook is informed by Critical Rationalism which is a thoroughly anti-justificationist intellectual framework; it introduces methodologies and methods developed by traditional Muslim scholars in a way that makes them accessible to modern readers, it contains more than 250 research activities and review questions which cover all the topics discussed in the book.
The book offers a ‘teach yourself’ style of presenting the topics introduced in the book by, among other things, providing comprehensive feedback to all the activities and questions introduced in it; moreover, almost all the reading material (essential and recommended) suggested to readers are chosen from sources which are easily and freely available on the internet; and last but not least, a dedicated webpage, freely available to readers of the book, updates the content of the book on a regular basis.
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