Aasim I. Padela, "Integrating Science and Scripture to Produce Moral Knowledge: Assessing Maṣlaḥa and Ḍarūra in Islamic Bioethics and the Case of Organ Donation," in Islam and Biomedicine, ed. Afifi al-Akiti and Aasim I. Padela, Philosophy and Medicine no. 137 (Springer, 2022), 295-316, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53801-9_13
Padela, Aasim I. "Integrating Science and Scripture to Produce Moral Knowledge: Assessing Maṣlaḥa and Ḍarūra in Islamic Bioethics and the Case of Organ Donation." In Islam and Biomedicine, ed. Afifi al-Akiti and Aasim I. Padela, 295-316. Philosophy and Medicine no. 137. Springer, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53801-9_13
"The chapter seeks to deliver such a framework and model by drawing upon the ideas of Thomas F. Torrance (d. 2009) about the relational nature and social coefficient of knowledge as well as the schema devised by al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) …"
Sources engaged: T. F. Torrance, Reality and Evangelical Theology (#2003-TFT-1); Alister McGrath, Thomas F. Torrance: An Intellectual Biography (#1999-AEM-1); Robert J. Palma, ‘Thomas F. Torrance’s Reformed Theology" (#1984-RJP-1); among others.
The growing complexity of science and society bewilders the religious public as well as their scholars. Both seek to find their moral compass in tradition and struggle to see how scriptural values speak to the issues of the day. This chapter is aimed at building a bridge between ‘the religious’ and ‘the scientific’ by describing the ways in which these categories overlap in the production of moral knowledge. Specifically, the paper draws upon concepts related to the social dimension of knowledge, correspondence theory, and moral ends, to reconsider the application of the concepts of maṣlaḥa (human interest/societal benefit) and ḍarūra (dire necessity) in moral evaluation. The chapter argues that these latter constructs necessarily engage with social and natural scientific understandings and offer an entry-point through which scientific knowledge and ways of knowing can inform Islamic moral discourse. Building from there the chapter presents a conceptual framework and process model for enhanced Islamic bioethical deliberation and applies it to the case of organ donation.
"This chapter seeks to further such multidisciplinary engagement at the intersec- tion of religion and biomedicine. Religious experts need conceptual frameworks and process models to help them structure natural and social scientific data, and also to evaluate and integrate this information with scriptural knowledge so as to pro- duce moral guidance. The chapter seeks to deliver such a framework and model by drawing upon the ideas of Thomas F. Torrance (d. 2009) about the relational nature and social coefficient of knowledge as well as the schema devised by al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) for ḥuḍūrī (presential) and ḥuṣūlī (attained) knowledge. I contend that scientific knowledge must be integrated with scriptural insights in order to meet the ultimate end-goal of Islamic morality – ‘forestalling harms and procuring benefits’ (darʾ al-mafāsid wa-jalb al-maṣāliḥ). Accordingly, I will demonstrate how the eth- ico-legal constructs of maṣlaḥa (human interest/public good) and ḍarūra (dire necessity) must bridge scriptural values with social reality. In closing I will illus- trate the model’s utility by turning to the ‘Islamic bioethics’ of organ donation. I will delineate specific questions that must be addressed on the basis of biomedical and social scientific data in order to proffer Islamic ethical perspectives on the act of donation and related policy questions." (p. 296)
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