AIOU Assignment BEd 1.5 Year 8627 Foundation of Science Education Assignment 1

AIOU Assignment BEd 1.5 Year 8627 Foundation of Science Education Assignment 1

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Q.1 Discuss in detail the contributions of Muslims in the field of Science. (20)

Muslims Contribution To Science:

Astronomy :

Muslims have always had a special interest in astronomy. The moon and the sun are of vital importance in the daily life of every Muslim. By the moon, Muslims determine the beginning and the end of the months in their lunar calendar. By the sun the Muslims calculate the times for prayer and fasting. It is also by means of astronomy that Muslims can determine the precise direction of the Qiblah, to face the Ka'bah in Makkah, during prayer. The most precise solar calendar, superior to the Julian, is the Jilali, devised under the supervision of Umar Khayyam. The Qur'an contains many references to astronomy.

"The heavens and the earth were ordered rightly, and were made subservient to man, including the sun, the moon, the stars, and day and night. Every heavenly body moves in an orbit assigned to it by God and never digresses, making the universe an orderly cosmos whose life and existence, diminution and expansion, are totally determined by the Creator." [Qur'an 30:22]

These references, and the injunctions to learn, inspired the early Muslim scholars to study the heavens. They integrated the earlier works of the Indians, Persians and Greeks into a new synthesis. Ptolemy's Almagest (the title as we know it is Arabic) was translated, studied and criticized. Many new stars were discovered, as we see in their Arabic names - Algol, Deneb, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Aldebaran. Astronomical tables were compiled, among them the Toledan tables, which were used by Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler. Also compiled were almanacs - another Arabic term. Other terms from Arabic are zenith, nadir, albedo, azimuth.

Muslim astronomers were the first to establish observatories, like the one built at Mugharah by Hulagu, the son of Genghis Khan, in Persia, and they invented instruments such as the quadrant and astrolabe, which led to advances not only in astronomy but in oceanic navigation, contributing to the European age of exploration.

Geography:

Muslim scholars paid great attention to geography. In fact, the Muslims' great concern for geography originated with their religion. The Qur'an encourages people to travel throughout the earth to see God's signs and patterns everywhere. Islam also requires each Muslim to have at least enough knowledge of geography to know the direction of the Qiblah (the position of the Ka'bah in Makkah) in order to pray five times a day. Muslims were also used to taking long journeys to conduct trade as well as to make the Hajj and spread their religion. The far-flung Islamic empire enabled scholar-explorers to compile large amounts of geographical and climatic information from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Among the most famous names in the field of geography, even in the West, are Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Batuta, renowned for their written accounts of their extensive explorations. In 1166, Al-Idrisi, the well-known Muslim scholar who served the Sicilian court, produced very accurate maps, including a world map with all the continents and their mountains, rivers and famous cities. Al-Muqdishi was the first geographer to produce accurate maps in color. It was, moreover, with the help of Muslim navigators and their inventions that Magellan was able to traverse the Cape of Good Hope, and Da Gama and Columbus had Muslim navigators on board their ships.

Humanity:

Seeking knowledge is obligatory in Islam for every Muslim, man and woman. The main sources of Islam, the Qur'an and the Sunnah (Prophet Muhammad's traditions), encourage Muslims to seek knowledge and be scholars, since this is the best way for people to know Allah (God), to appreciate His wondrous creations and be thankful for them. Muslims were therefore eager to seek knowledge, both religious and secular, and within a few years of Muhammad's mission, a great civilization sprang up and flourished. The outcome is shown in the spread of Islamic universities; Al-Zaytunah in Tunis, and Al-Azhar in Cairo go back more than 1,000 years and are the oldest existing universities in the world. Indeed, they were the models for the first European universities, such as Bologna, Heidelberg, and the Sorbonne. Even the familiar academic cap and gown originated at Al-Azhar University.

Muslims made great advances in many different fields, such as geography, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, pharmacology, architecture, linguistics and astronomy. Algebra and the Arabic numerals were introduced to the world by Muslim scholars. The astrolabe, the quadrant, and other navigational devices and maps were developed by Muslim scholars and played an important role in world progress, most notably in Europe's age of exploration.

Muslim scholars studied the ancient civilations from Greece and Rome to China and India. The works of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid and others were translated into Arabic. Muslim scholars and scientists then added their own creative ideas, discoveries and inventions, and finally transmitted this new knowledge to Europe, leading directly to the Renaissance. Many scientific and medical treatises, having been translated into Latin, were standard text and reference books as late as the 17th and 18th centuries.

Mathematics:

It is interesting to note that Islam so strongly urges mankind to study and explore the universe. For example, the Holy Qur'an states:

"We (Allah) will show you (mankind) Our signs/patterns in the horizons/universe and in yourselves until you are convinced that the revelation is the truth." [Qur'an, 14:53]

This invitation to explore and search made Muslims interested in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and the other sciences, and they had a very clear and firm understanding of the correspondences among geometry, mathematics, and astronomy.

The Muslims invented the symbol for zero (The word "cipher" comes from Arabic sifr), and they organized the numbers into the decimal system - base 10. Additionally, they invented the symbol to express an unknown quantity, i.e. variables like x.

The first great Muslim mathematician, Al-Khawarizmi, invented the subject of algebra (al-Jabr), which was further developed by others, most notably Umar Khayyam. Al-Khawarizmi's work, in Latin translation, brought the Arabic numerals along with the mathematics to Europe, through Spain. The word "algorithm" is derived from his name.

Muslim mathematicians excelled also in geometry, as can be seen in their graphic arts, and it was the great Al-Biruni (who excelled also in the fields of natural history, even geology and mineralogy) who established trigonometry as a distinct branch of mathematics. Other Muslim mathematicians made significant progress in number theory.

Medicine:

In Islam, the human body is a source of appreciation, as it is created by Almighty Allah (God). How it functions, how to keep it clean and safe, how to prevent diseases from attacking it or cure those diseases, have been important issues for Muslims.

Prophet Muhammad himself urged people to "take medicines for your diseases", as people at that time were reluctant to do so. He also said: "God created no illness, but established for it a cure, except for old age. When the antidote is applied, the patient will recover with the permission of God."

This was strong motivation to encourage Muslim scientists to explore, develop, and apply empirical laws. Much attention was given to medicine and public health care. The first hospital was built in Baghdad in 706 AC. The Muslims also used camel caravans as mobile hospitals, which moved from place to place.

Since the religion did not forbid it, Muslim scholars used human cadavers to study anatomy and physiology and to help their students understand how the body functions. This empirical study enabled surgery to develop very quickly.

Al-Razi, known in the West as Rhazes, the famous physician and scientist, (d. 932) was one of the greatest physicians in the world in the Middle Ages. He stressed empirical observation and clinical medicine and was unrivaled as a diagnostician. He also wrote a treatise on hygiene in hospitals. Khalaf Abul-Qasim Al-Zahrawi was a very famous surgeon in the eleventh century, known in Europe for his work, Concessio (Kitab al-Tasrif).

Ibn Sina (d. 1037), better known to the West as Avicenna, was perhaps the greatest physician until the modern era. His famous book, Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, remained a standard textbook even in Europe, for over 700 years. Ibn Sina's work is still studied and built upon in the East.

Other significant contributions were made in pharmacology, such as Ibn Sina's Kitab al-Shifa' (Book of Healing), and in public health. Every major city in the Islamic world had a number of excellent hospitals, some of them teaching hospitals, and many of them were specialized for particular diseases, including mental and emotional. The Ottomans were particularly noted for their building of hospitals and for the high level of hygiene practiced in them.
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Q.2 “There is a scientific reason in every natural phenomenon”. Give examples from the Real life. (20) 

A phenomenon, in a scientific context, is something that is observed to occur or to exist. This meaning contrasts with the understanding of the word in general usage, as something extraordinary or outstanding.

Phenomena are categorized in a number of ways. Here are a few of the many possibilities, with examples:

1. Natural phenomena are those that occur or manifest without human input. Examples of natural phenomena include gravity, tides, biological processes and oscillation.
2. Social phenomena are those that occur or exist through the actions of groups of humans. Six degrees of separation, for example, is a phenomenon that is demonstrated in social networking.

• Psychological phenomena are those manifested in human behaviors and responses. The sunk cost effect, for example, is the tendency for humans to continue investing in something that clearly isn’t working. Another psychological phenomenon, the Hawthorne effect is demonstrated by an improvement in human behavior or performance as a result of increased attention from superiors, clients or colleagues. 
• Visual phenomena include optical illusions, such as the peripheral drift illusion in which people perceive movement in static images like Kitaoka Akiyoshi's rotating snakes (See the image in our definition of the peripheral drift illusion).

1) Sailing Stones in Death :

The stones move only every two or three years and most tracks develop over three or four years. At Racetrack Playa, these tracks have been studied since the early 1900s, yet the origins of stone movement are not confirmed and remain the subject of research for which several hypotheses exist.

2) Gravity

Believe it or not many scientists believe that the law of gravity is somewhat broken. Experiments by Saxl and Allais found that Foucault pendulums veer off in strange directions during solar eclipses. Interplanetary NASA satellites are showing persistent errors in trajectory. Neither of these is explained or predicted by the standard theory of gravity known as Einstein's General Relativity.

3) Dark Matter

Dark Matter of an unknown form makes up most of the matter of the universe. This matter is not predicted by the standard physics models. The so-called "Theory of Everything" does not predict and does not un Each year, hundreds of fireballs spontaneously explode out of Thailand’s Mekong River. Known as “bung fai paya nak” or “Naga fireballs,” they have appeared on the “late autumn night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent for as long as anyone can remember,” according to a 2002 Time magazine story about the phenomenon. Some believe the balls come from the breath of Naga, a mythical serpent that haunts the river. (Locals use old grainy pictures and postcards of the mythical beast to prove its presence to tourists.) Others believe the fireballs are actually pockets of methane bubbling up from the river, but many locals remain convinced that the fireballs are of a supernatural origin.

4) The Naga Fireballs

Each year, hundreds of fireballs spontaneously explode out of Thailand’s Mekong River. Known as “bung fai paya nak” or “Naga fireballs,” they have appeared on the “late autumn night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent for as long as anyone can remember,” according to a 2002 Time magazine story about the phenomenon. Some believe the balls come from the breath of Naga, a mythical serpent that haunts the river. (Locals use old grainy pictures and postcards of the mythical beast to prove its presence to tourists.) Others believe the fireballs are actually pockets of methane bubbling up from the river, but many locals remain convinced that the fireballs are of a supernatural origin.

5) The suicidal birds of Jatinga

  a village on a ridge, is located in Dima Hasao District, Assam State in India. It is 330 km south of Guwahati. It is most famous for the phenomenon of birds “committing suicide”. For last 100 years many species of birds commit mass suicides in this village and no one knows why. Many people have reported birds falling out of the sky out of the blue. However a new theory says that birds are actually killed by locals and not actually commit suicide. But that is just a theory so far.
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Q.3 Differentiate Inductive and Deductive method of science. (20) 

The Differences Between Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning is reasoning where the premises support the conclusion. The conclusion is the hypothesis, or probable. This means that the conclusion is the part of reasoning that inductive reasoning is trying to prove. Inductive reasoning is also referred to as 'cause and effect reasoning' or 'bottom-up reasoning' because it seeks to prove a conclusion first. This is usually derived from specific instances to develop a general conclusion.

Kevin and Andrew are now arguing about math. Kevin says that all big brothers are good at math. Andrew is an only child, but he's pretty sure that this argument cannot be valid.

Kevin makes a conclusion based on the following premises: 'My older brother is good at math. My friend's older brother is good at math. My neighbor's big brother is a math tutor. Therefore, all older brothers are good at math.' You've probably heard people use this type of reasoning in life. We know this can't be true.

You probably know that being an older brother doesn't inherently make you good at math. What Kevin has done is made a generalized conclusion: all older brothers are good at math based on three premises of specific instances: Mine, my friend's and my neighbor's older brother are all good at math. These specific instances are not representative of the entire population of older brothers. Because inductive reasoning is based on specific instances, it can often produce weak and invalid arguments.

You can remember inductive reasoning like this: inductive reasoning is bottom-up reasoning; it starts with a probable conclusion and induces premises.

You can remember inductive reasoning like this: inductive reasoning is bottom-up reasoning; it starts with a probable conclusion and induces premises.

Now let's talk about deductive reasoning.

Deductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning is reasoning where true premises develop a true and valid conclusion. In the case of deductive reasoning, the conclusion must be true if the premises are also true. Deductive reasoning uses general principles to create a specific conclusion. Deductive reasoning is also known as 'top-down reasoning' because it goes from general and works its way down more specific.

A deductive approach usually begins with a hypothesis, whilst an inductive approach will usually use research questions to narrow the scope of the study.

For deductive approaches the emphasis is generally on causality, whilst for inductive approaches the aim is usually focused on exploring new phenomena or looking at previously researched phenomena from a different perspective.

This approach necessitates the researcher beginning with a completely open mind without any preconceived ideas of what will be found. The aim is to generate a new theory based on the data.

Once the data analysis has been completed the researcher must examine existing theories in order to position their new theory within the discipline.

Grounded theory is not an approach to be used lightly. It requires extensive and repeated sifting through the data and analysing and re-analysing multiple times in order to identify new theory. It is an approach best suited to research projects where there the phenomena to be investigated has not been previously explored.
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Q.4 What is Realists’ view of knowledge about science? (20)

What is scientific realism? 
An important strand in the story of the philosophy of science in the past three decades has been a struggle between realists and anti-realists. The debate turns around the most adequate way of interpreting scientific theories that refer to unobservable entities, processes, and properties. Realists maintain that the entities postulated by scientific theories (electrons, genes, quasars) are real entities in the world, with approximately the properties attributed to them by the best available scientific theories. Instrumentalists, on the other hand, maintain that theories are no more than instruments of calculation, permitting the scientist to infer from one set of observable circumstances to another set of observable circumstances at some later point in time.

Traditionally, scientific realism asserts that the objects of scientific knowledge exist independently of the minds or acts of scientists and that scientific theories are true of that objective (mind-independent) world. The reference to knowledge points to the dual character of scientific realism.

On the one hand it is a metaphysical (specifically, an ontological) doctrine, claiming the independent existence of certain entities. On the other hand it is an epistemological doctrine asserting that we can know what individuals exist and that we can find out the truth of the theories or laws that govern them.

Opposed to scientific realism (hereafter just 'realism') are a variety of antirealisms, including phenomenalism and empiricism. Recently two others, instrumentalism and constructivism, have posed special challenges to realism. Instrumentalism regards the objects of knowledge pragmatically, as tools for various human purposes, and so takes reliability (or empirical adequacy) rather than truth as scientifically central.

A version of this, fictionalism, contests the existence of many of the objects favoured by the realist and regards them as merely expedient means to useful ends. Constructivism maintains that scientific knowledge is socially constituted, that 'facts' are made by us. Thus it challenges the objectivity of knowledge, as the realist understands objectivity, and the independent existence that realism is after. Conventionalism, holding that the truths of science ultimately rest on man-made conventions, is allied to constructivism.

Arguing for realism
Late nineteenth and early twentieth century debates over the reality of molecules and atoms polarized the scientific community on the realism question. Antirealists like MACH, DUHEM and POINCAR… ñ representing (roughly) phenomenalist, instrumentalist and conventionalist positions ñ at first carried the day with a sceptical attitude toward the truth of scientific theories and the reality of the 'theoretical entities' employed by those theories (see PHENOMENALISM; CONVENTIONALISM).

Led by the successes of statistical mechanics (see THERMODYNAMICS) and relativity (see RELATIVITY THEORY, PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF), however, PLANCK and EINSTEIN helped turn the tide toward realism. That movement was checked by two developments. In physics the quantum theory of 1925ñ6 quickly ran into difficulties over the possibility of a realist interpretation (see QUANTUM MECHANICS, INTERPRETATIONS OF) and the community settled on the instrumentalist programme promoted by BOHR and HEISENBERG. This was a formative lesson for logical empiricism whose respect for developments in physics and whose positivistic orientation led it to brand the realism question as metaphysical, a pseudo-question (see LOGICAL POSITIVISM). Thus for a while empiricist and instrumentalist trends in science and philosophy eclipsed scientific realism.
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Q.5 Write brief notes on the following:
a) Salient features of philosophy of Idealism (10)

Idealism

As with most philosophical controversies, this one isn’t black-and-white. Most scholars fall somewhere in between total realism and total idealism. In addition, you can be a realist about some objects and an idealist about others! For example, some philosophers are realists when it comes to everyday objects like shoes and sandwiches, but idealists when it comes to ethics or consciousness.

In addition, idealists point out that perception depends on the mind, which means ideas will always interfere with our perception, and this is something that idealists and realists can agree on at least to some extent.

When you see a car, for example, idealists argue that you’re not directly perceiving the car but rather perceiving it through a kind of lens or fog imposed by all your knowledge, ideas, and associations related to cars. Thus, our ideas are like colored glasses that can never be removed – they distort everything we see and make it impossible to sense the world reliably.

1. Idealism Believes in the Universal Mind:
Besides the physical or material universe, there is also a spiritual universe which is permeated by the Universal Mind of God. He is the Creator and others are the created. Human mind is a part of the Universal Mind and is dependent of Him. God or the Universal Mind is the source of all human values and the goal of all human activities is the realization of this Universal Mind is one’s own self.

Upanishads provide the fundamental theme of Indian idealistic thought—the divinity of man and the spiritual principle governing cosmos:

The following table illustrates the classification.
Philosophies
Monism – Dualism – Pluralism
Materialism – Idealism – Pragmatism
Naturalism

Mechanistic – Biological – Physical
He who sees all beings in the very Self, and the Self in all beings, feels no hatred by virtue of that realization,

God is one. He is supreme and true. He is the creator free from fear and inborn self-existent and the enlightener.”—Jap Ji.

2. Idealism Regards Man as a Spiritual Being:
Idealism believes that man is a mere animal. He is essentially a spiritual being whose chief aim is to develop his spiritual nature. It is this spirituality that distinguishes man from other lower creatures. The underlying principle of the idealistic philosophy is “Mind or spirit is the essential world stuff and that mind is not merely brain and its activity, but is in itself a real thing.” Reality is found in the mind of man and not in the external world. Upanishads proclaim the identity of universal soul (Brahman) and the individual soul (Atma). Vedanta explains the same, and teaches how to realize self as the ultimate (3T? The self is to be seen (3TCTT 3TT? qsqr :). That is the ultimate goal of life according to Indian idealism. In the domain of spiritualism, there is no room for competition, hypocrisy and jealously. There is only brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God.

3. The World of Ideas and Values is more important than the world of Matter:
Idealism has full faith in eternal values which never change. They can neither be created nor destroyed. According to Plato, the outstanding eternal values are Truth, Goodness and Beauty. They are exactly similar to the attributes of God as expressed by the sages and seers of ancient Indian in the words. Man cannot create these values.

He can only discover them if he tries. According to idealism, “Everything which we truly judged to be good or beautiful is so because it partakes of the nature of Absolute Goodness or Beauty. It is Absolute Beauty which makes all beautiful things, beautiful. ” Shankaracharya even objects to the reality of the physical world. To Kant and Schpenhauer the objective world does not exist apart from the subjective thought. Matter may be a projection of mind, or even a creation of mind.

4. Real knowledge is perceived in mind:
The knowledge which is gained through the activity of mind is more important than the knowledge, acquired through senses.

5. Stress on the Principle of Unity of Diversity:
Idealists stress on the Principle of Unity in Diversity. They believe that implicit in all the diversities is an essential unity. Prof. H. N. Home says, “An idealistic philosophy of education, then, is an account of man finding himself as an integral part of universe mind.”
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b) Reasons of Uplift of Science in the history of Muslim World.(10)

Islam originated and has developed in an Arab culture, other cultures which have adopted Islam have tended to be influenced by Arab customs. Thus Arab Muslim societies and other Muslims have cultural affinities, though every society has preserved its distinguishing characteristics. Islamic culture inherited an Arab culture born in the desert, simple but by no means simplistic. It has an oral tradition based on the transmission of culture through poetry and narrative. However, it has been the written record that has had the greatest impact on civilization. Islam civilization is based on the value of education, which both the Qur'an and the Prophet stressed.

The Sciences

From the second half of the eighth century to the end of the eleventh century, Islamic scientific developments were the basis of knowledge in the world. At a period of history when the scientific and philosophical heritage of the ancient world was about to be lost, Islamic scholars stepped in to preserve that heritage from destruction. Indeed, without the cultivation of science in these early centuries by Islamic scholars, it is probable that texts which later exercised a formative influence over Western culture would never have survived intact.

It is certain, moreover, that the modern world would look much different than it does today. For the culture and civilization that were founded on Islam not only preserved the heritage of the ancient world but codified, systematized, explained, criticized, modified, and, finally, built on past contributions in the process of making distinctive contributions of their own. The Wonders and Curiosities of Creation

The story of Islam's role in the preservation and transmission of ancient science, to say nothing of its own lasting contributions, is truly fascinating—and a bit of a puzzle. Why is it that so many ancient Greek texts survive only in Arabic translations? How did the Arabs, who had no direct contact with the science and learning of the Greeks, come to be the inheritors of the classical tradition.

The answers to these questions are to be found in a unique conjunction of historical forces. From the first, it appears, the Umayyad dynasty located in Damascus evinced an interest in things Greek, for they employed educated Greek-speaking civil servants extensively. Early friezes on mosques from the period show a familiarity with the astrological lore of late antiquity.

Trade and Commerce as a Cultural Vehicle

Because Arabs historically had a tradition of trade and commerce, the Muslims continued that tradition. It was due to their superiority in navigation, shipbuilding, astronomy, and scientific measuring devices that Arab and Muslim commerce and trade developed and reached so many peoples throughout the world. The Arabs were at the crossroads of the ancient trade routes from the Mediterranean, the Arabian Gulf, East Africa, and the Indian subcontinent, all the way to China.

he word "Arabesque" entered into the Western lexicon as a description of the intricate design that characterized Arab Muslim art. But the great mosques that were first built throughout the Islamic world were not only places of worship but places of learning which remained as great examples of architecture and design. Through them civilization was transmitted in an artistic environment that was at once intellectually inspiring and emotionally uplifting. The Haram Mosque of Mecca, the Mosque of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, the numerous mosques in Cairo—AlAzhar, Amr, Sultan Hassan, Baybars the Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, the Quairawan in Tunisia, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the Cordoba Mosque in Spain and the Kutubiyah in Marakesh are among the most noteworthy. In addition to distinctive Islamic Fundamentalism.
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