Sunday, November 16, 2008
Princeton in the KSA's service
I have been meaning to write a post about the decision of Princeton's president Shirley Tilghman to serve as one of the "founding trustees" of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, but Ron Coleman beat me to the punch. His take is a bit harsher than mine would have been; while I am no fan of the Saudis for many reasons familiar to the readers of this blog, I admit that I am intrigued by the various means by which King Abdullah is nudging his country vaguely in the direction of modernity. Science and technology proved to be subversive to Christianity, even as Christians officially reconciled themselves to reason. Who knows what might eventually come from the establishment of a major research university in the heart of Saudi Arabia? The presence of infidel professors, and lefty multi-culti female professors at that, on its board of trustees certainly looks subversive to me. Why not see if something comes of it?
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Sun Nov 16, 04:50:00 PM:
What are the first steps toward an Islamic enlightenment? A university can't hurt, and might help. Worse things could be done with the money, I suppose, than building a folly. They might instead give the money to GM, for one example.
By 
Aegon01, at
Sun Nov 16, 07:39:00 PM:
The study of science has historically been hindered less in Islam than in Christianity. For example, research about the human body and medicine ground to a halt in Medieval Europe because the body would be "desecrated" and such. However, Islamic belief says that to study God's (or Allah's) creation is simply another way to venerate him. This idea also led to a leap forward in astronomy, among other things.
The only area that Islam has typically hindered, and this is true of Christianity as well, is philosophy. Ibn Rushd "Averroes" was ostracized by the ulama for his unothodox ideas.
Hopefully, Islamic scientists will be able to do what their scientists of the Abbasids and Ottomans did: take old ideas and improve on them.
By , at
Mon Nov 17, 12:19:00 AM:
Anonymous: "What are the first steps toward an Islamic enlightenment? A university can't hurt, and might help."
Perhaps, but I'm skeptical.
The two oldest universities on Earth are in the Islamic world. Fat lot of good it's done them.
And the West had universities for 600-odd years before it had its Enlightenment.
Our Enlightenment only occurred after centuries of brutal religious warfare and millions of deaths. We finally realized that our old ways didn't work and that we needed a way out.
Johnson said "when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." Perhaps this operates at a societal level, too. Until a nation comes face-to-face with its noose, it may not really focus its mind. Has KSA seen its noose? I doubt it.
Tiger
By , at
Mon Nov 17, 12:20:00 AM:
Me: "Has KSA seen its noose? I doubt it."
Maybe, just maybe, Iraq has.
Tiger
