Ibn Khaldun as the Father of Sociology - Research Proposal Example

Introduction to Ibn Khaldun due: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 3 Introduction 5 Hypothesis statement 6 Previous research findings 6 Who are interested? 7 Discussion 8 Reasons for the paper 8 Current research findings 8 Objectivity 9 Examples related to the topic 10 Conclusion 11 Future research 11 Suggestions 11 Applications 11 Implication 12 References 13 Abstract This research paper intends to trace the history of sociology, by introducing, defining and highlighting the pioneers of history from various parts of the world. Emphasis is however given to Ibn Khaldun, who is considered the father of sociology, and whose history dates back to the 14th century. He is used to reminding Islamic scholars of his invaluable contribution to the society. He is considered as the founder and a major contributor in various theories and practitioners and is regarded as a notable sociologist especially in the Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Unfortunately, his important contributions to sociology are in most cases neglected by researchers. In this paper, discussion will be made on the way forward for future researches especially in the areas that require attention by other sociologists. This will bring out the contributions of Ibn Khaldun, which standout in spite of societal evolution through uncertainties and environmental forces. Contribution of Ibn Khaldun is best seen in the social dynamics, which has always been an area of focus for classical sociologists and that of modern social theorists as a result of its essence and presence in all types of societies. Social dynamics forms a fundamental issue and has been a challenge to many academic disciplines especially when it comes to sociology. This paper analyses the broad horizon of social change borrowing a lot of insight from Ibn Khaldun. He observed that social solidarity is a crucial function in giving an explanation of the cyclical theory of social change, and it also plays a big role in coming up and falling of various societies and civilizations. Khaldun maintained his observation of cyclical perspective of the social change and also identified an almost rhythmic consistency of the rise and fall in human civilization besides the analysis of multiple factors contributing to it. Sense of solidarity is a factor which Khaldun emphasizes as on and maintains that it is important in social and political development. He observes that social cohesion brings groups to power and also gives rise to the ascent of civilization and political power; while containing within itself the seeds of the group’s loss to be replaced by a novel dynasty or empires bound by a stronger cohesion. Khaldun explains the philosophy of political sociology. Introduction My main motivation of choosing sociology was the desire to get a better understanding of sociology and get to the origins of the discipline. My investigations were geared towards unveiling the pioneers of the important discipline of sociology and exploring their theories. Ibn Khaldun, being one of the major pioneers of sociology, contributed a great deal to the discipline of sociology. His death after seventy-four years left his name much popular within the circles of sociology, no wonder he was nicknamed the father of sociology. Sociology though a broad discipline can be defined as a scientific study of the social behavior, its roots, development, organization and institutions. Sociology being a social science uses different techniques of empirical investigation as well as critical evaluation to develop knowledge about social order, social disorder as well as social change. A useful way of describing the discipline is by using a cluster of subfields that examine various dimensions of society. For instance, social stratification deals with the study of inequalities while class structure demography studies changes in a particular population, in terms of the size and the type. The other subfields are criminology which examines criminal behavior and deviance and political sociology which studies the government and laws in place. Race and gender are in turn examined in the sociology of race and gender respectively. The sociology of gender provides an examination of the society’s racial and while the sociology of gender gives the cleavages of the particular gender (Baali, 1988). The major pioneer of sociology, Ibn Khaldun, was a statesman, a jurist, a historian and a scholar who was born in Tunis on May 27, 1332 (Khaldūn, 1969). His immediate ancestors were attached to the court of the Hafsid rulers in Bone and in Tunis (Ibn, Rosenthal, & Dawood, 1969). His combination of statesmanship and philosophy could be attributed to his love of learning and political aspirations. In his formative period, he lived in the era of great political upheaval in North-West Africa, when the position of the Hafsids became very precarious. His contribution to history is identified by the fact that he advocated sociological factors governing the apparent events (Baali, 1988). Hypothesis statement Sociology is a discipline cutting across the various aspects of the society and uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis for development of knowledge about the social order, disorder and change. Previous research findings In the middle ages, Islamic civilization had developed far beyond the West in regard to philosophy and sociology. Medieval Muslims invented, translated and worked on ancient Greek manuscripts. Nevertheless, following the decline of the Roman Empire and spread of Christianity, the classical tomes survived in a newly conquered Muslim lands in the Middle East. Sociology is a new discipline which cuts across other social sciences including political science, economics, psychology, and anthropology. The ideas contributing to sociology traces its origins to a concoction of common human wisdom, works of art and philosophy. In the West, sociology emerged as an academic response the challenge of modernity, from the fact that the world is continuously becoming smaller and more integrated, making people’s experience of the world more atomized and dispersed (Hassan 2006). According to an earlier researcher by the name Auguste Comte, sociologists hoped to get a proper understanding of what holds social groups together and also to come up with an antidote to social disintegration. In his research, Comte came up with the term from Latin socius, meaning a companion, associate, member or friend and suffix Greek, which means study of or speech. From this understanding, sociology can be defined as a social science involving the study of social interactions. Comte was ambitious about unifying all studies of humankind, including history, psychology and economics. He believed that all human life had passed through the same distinct historical stages and grasping this progress, and there is a possibility of prescription of the remedies for social ills. Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, wrote the first English books bearing the term sociology. In 1895, Albion W. Small founded the American Journal of Sociology, establishing the first full-pledged university department of sociology in the U.S in 1892 at the University of Chicago. Emile Durkheim founded a department of sociology in 1895 at the University of Bordeaux and L’ Annee Sociologique in the year 1896. The other theorists of sociology include Karl Max, Ferdinand Tonnies and Vilfredo Pareto, who were major contributors of sociology from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They did not only consider themselves as sociologists but also addressed religion, education, law, psychology, ethics, philosophy and theology. Who are interested? Many sociologists have tried to make sociology useful for non-academic purposes. Sociological research has attracted the interest of educators, lawmakers, administrators, developers as well as the others interested in resolving social problems and formulation of public policy, through areas such as survey research, evaluation research, methodological assessment and public sociology. The sociologist is compelled by sociological methods, theories and concepts to explore the origins of commonly accepted rules governing human behavior, a reality known in the sociology circles as the sociological perspective (Hassan, 2006). Discussion Reasons for the paper Sociology as it is understood today has come from somewhere. This paper introduces the various phases the discipline has gone through, while paying close attention to the major contributor to sociology, the scholar Ibn Khaldun, who the other scholars have up to now regarded him as the father of sociology. Reviewing the contributions of Khaldun will make us appreciate the fact that modern history begins with the Renaissance, an assumption that clearly transposes the Western historical conditions onto world history (Hassan, 2006). Out of his family’s high rank, Ibn Khaldun was able to study with the best North African teachers of his time. He acquired Arabic education, studying the Quran and Arabic linguistics, which form the basis for understanding of the Quran and Islamic law. His life was thoroughly connected to historical events, making his theory of sociology link to the realms of ideas and actions. Despite Europe’s ignorance, the Europeans discovered the importance of Ibn Khaldun in the nineteenth century, thus elevating his status from just an ordinary Islamic historiography to a remarkable Muslim historian. Although he lived in the 14th century, his thoughts continue shedding light on historical events of the current times. His ideas have remained relevant to date and it is out of his efforts that he has been accepted and commented upon by theologians, historians, economists, jurist, politicians, politicians, teachers, educators and environmentalists. Current research findings The current management theory, the Maslow Theory of Hierarchical Needs emphasizes on a similar concept and borrows heavily from Ibn Khaldun. The Maslow’s theory is probably one of the most widely publicized models of motivation and was developed by Abraham H. Maslow. According to Abraham, only unsatisfied needs are prime sources of motivation. He further suggested that there are five needs systems accounting for most of the human behavior. He placed these in a hierarchy ranging from the most primitive and immature to the most civilized and mature. He listed the needs as survival, safety or security, a sense of belonging, ego-status and finally self-actualization (Montana & Charnov, 2008). Improving on Maslow’s theory, Fredrick I. Herzberg took a different approach to motivation. He focused on sources of motivation which seemed pertinent to work and work accomplishment. However, his investigations led him to the conclusion that needs very similar to those suggested by Maslow were operating in the job context (Montana & Charnov, 2008). The two theories have borrowed from Ibn Khaldun’s concept which had talked about human needs. He recognized that human needs are derivatives of the human nature. He termed these needs as elementary and basic needs. Desire to fulfill these needs leads to the further use of knowledge, and intellect by human beings. Khaldun was however very careful to point out that civilization is not solely based on material needs, but the development of the needs results in the advancement of civilization. He also talked about the nature of production and the essence of cooperation amongst the members of the society to fulfill the production needs. Objectivity Reading about Ibn Khaldun acquaints us with a totally different narrative of the history of ideas, one after the other and how they helped in building the discipline of sociology. In my opinion, Khaldun had taken a good deal of his time trying to analyze various groups of the human race. Drawing conclusions on the various forms of civilization was not easy and required a sharp mind, well furnished with experience of living with different people. His wide scholarly base also added on to his knowledge, which in a big way helped him in the development of his theories. It is to go beyond contemporary nationalist controversies that seek to identify a single fountain of human civilization. Examples related to the topic On the topic of an introduction to Ibn Khaldun, we can draw a number of assumptions which are prevalent in the modern scholarship. To begin with is the nationalist dogma that naturalizes contemporary geography, overlooking its history and identifying the intellectual tradition with a fixed geography. From this point of view, Khaldun belongs to a number of traditions, that is, Arab, Berber and to some extent Africa, where he finally died, in Tunis. The second assumption is that the intellectual thought which develops in a linear way. Khaldun acknowledges the Greek concept and origin of Arab philosophical thought, when it comes to logic. He at the same time stresses on the Persian foundations of Greek thought. Reading of Khaldun has a third effect on the reader. His account of the development of a specialized class was preoccupied with questions of tradition, and how it is transmitted and adapted. Reading deeply of the Khaldun’s theories, we find that he does not only probe the limits of religious authorities but also the hard division existing between reason and faith, which equates faith in God with the belief in objective knowledge. Khaldun also gives the reader a reflection on the variation of the religious and the secular worlds. He does probe not only the limits of religious authority, but also the hard division existing between reason and faith, which equates faith in God with belief in objective knowledge. Additionally, after reading Khaldun’s theory, the reader can challenge it since it creates awareness of the limits of his own thought, alongside its strength. The former lays in his failure to historicize and probe savagery during the latter lays in his understanding of civilization. Savagery lacks history in Ibn Khaldun (Dover, 1952). Conclusion Future research As a recommendation, future sociologist should work in unison so that they may bridge the gap between the Islamic understanding and the applied sociology for an effective outcome of the ummah. It would also be important to conduct a comprehensive analysis of gender conditions. This is aimed at developing gender responsive policy frameworks. The analyses need to take care of the economy and society as a whole, together with the households and individual members. The intent of the analysis is to offer an understanding of the societal and household conditions (Ahmed, 2002). Suggestions People ought to reason in terms of what Ibn Khaldun called human civilization. With compassionate understanding of other civilizations, through the development of the scholarship of inclusion, we will be able to resolve some of the deleterious consequences of globalization such as the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Dialogue of civilization, therefore, needs to be checked in this century in an attempt to end mindless cycle of violence (Ahmed, 2002). Applications Earlier generations of social thinkers agreed that Khaldun was the founder of philosophy, and they noted that he described the transformation of Arabian society from rural society to urban society, giving an analysis of this transition. Besides analyzing multiple factors contributing to the cyclical perspective of social change, Khaldun maintained identified an almost rhythmic consistency of rise and fall in human civilization. He observed that societies are living organisms that experience cyclic birth, growth, maturity, decline and ultimate death as a result of universal facts. In his opinion, he asserted that neither an individual dynasty nor a society can permanently remain at a higher level of development; soon after maturity is attained decay sets in (Slattery, 2003). Khaldun notes that social cohesion carries groups to power and gives rise to the ascent of a civilization and political power while at the same time contains itself within the seeds of the clusters downfall to be replaced by a novel dynasty or empire bound by a stronger cohesion. Implication According to Ibn Khaldun, Asabiyyah forms the basis of political power and cultural hegemony while, on the other hand, the uncontrolled individualism was a source of the downfall of groups. He believed that societies are bound by the power of social cohesiveness, which can be improved by the unifying force of religion. Asabiyyah gives a motivational force to bring the dominant groups to power, and it arises spontaneously among tribes or other smaller groups. His reflections on history and his study of social life commands the admiration of modern social scientists. This has won him the title of the true father of sociology (Ahmed, 2002). References Ahmed, A. (2002). Ibn Khalduns understanding of civilizations and the dilemmas of Islam and the West today. The Middle East Journal, 20-45. Baali, F. (1988). Society, state, and urbanism: Ibn Khalduns sociological thought. Albany: State University of New York Press. Dover, C. (1952). The racial philosophy of Ibn Khaldun. Phylon (1940), 107-119. Ibn, K., Rosenthal, F., & In Dawood, N. J. (1969). The Muqaddimah: An introduction to history. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. Hassan, F. H. (2006). Ibn Khaldun and Jane Addams: The Real Father of Sociology and The Mother of Social Works. Madrid, November, 3-5. Khaldūn, I. (1969). The Muqaddimah: an introduction to history; in three volumes. 1 (No. 43). Princeton University Press. Montana, P. J., & Charnov, B. H. (2008). Management. Hauppauge, NY: Barrons Educational Series. Slattery, M. (2003). Key ideas in sociology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Read More