2 |
The
first six sections of this chapter are a later addition not yet
found in A or B, but appearing in C and D. In their place the
earlier text had a much briefer section, printed in Bulaq and
depending texts, as also at the end of Vol. II of the Paris
edition (pp. 407 f.). The ideas briefly mentioned there reoccur
in the larger text; cf., esp., pp. 417 f., below. What follows
is a translation of that earlier section, a few lines of which
were translated by Issawi, p. 140.
Science and instruction are natural to human
civilization.
This is because all animals share with man his
animality, as far as sensual perception, motion, food, shelter,
and other such things are concerned. Man is distinguished from
them by his ability to think. It enables him to obtain his
livelihood, to co-operate to this end with his fellow men, to
establish the social organization that makes such co-operation
possible, and to accept the divine revelations of the prophets,
to act in accordance with them, and to prepare for his salvation
in the other world. He thinks about all these things constantly,
and does not stop thinking for even so long as it takes the eye
to blink. In fact, the action of thinking is faster than the eye
can see.
Man's ability to think produces the sciences and
the afore-mentioned crafts. In connection with the ability to
obtain the requirements of nature, which is engrained in man as
well as, indeed, in animals, his ability to think desires to
obtain perceptions that it does not yet possess. Man, therefore,
has recourse to those who preceded him in a science, or had more
knowledge or perception than he, or learned a particular science
from earlier prophets who transmitted information about it to
those whom they met. He takes over such things from them, and is
eager to learn and know them.
His ability to think and to speculate, then,
directs itself to one of the realities. He speculates about
every one of the accidents that attach themselves to the essence
of (that reality). He persists in doing so until it becomes a
habit of his, always to combine all its accidents with a given
reality. So, his knowledge of the accidents occurring in
connection with a particular reality becomes a specialized
knowledge. Members of the next generation desire to obtain that
knowledge. Therefore, they repair to the people who know about
it. This is the origin of instruction. It has thus become clear
that science and instruction are natural to human beings.
And God knows better. |