A critique of Ibn Khaldun’s causality concept

Abstract EN

The importance of circular causation in explaining the dynamics of learning systems that cover the entirety of human experience is pointed out.

Yet despite claims, Ibn Khaldun is seen to have failed in addressing the analytical nature of this central theme of historiography.

Recent authors who have contributed to the same theme in favor of Ibn Khaldun also could not comprehend the analytical learning aspects of the systems worldview of circular causation.

Contrary to these developments both in Ibn Khaldun’s contribution and by recent authors on Khaldunian thought, this paper develops an analytical methodology of circular causation in the light of the worldview of unity of knowledge, termed in the Qur’an as unity of the divine laws, Tawhid.

This analytical conceptualization is then applied to specific issues of historiography, political economy, modernity and socio-economic development in order to bring out the dynamic learning context of circular causation as a universal methodology premised on the Qur’anic epistemological worldview.

Comparative studies on causality as methodology in the philosophy of science in the prevalent literature are examined.