Summary of "Rethinking the structure of Islamic economics science: the universal man imperative" by Mahyudi and Aziz (2017)
The article is divided into six sections.
Section one talks about how Islamic economics (IE) has an advantage when discussing about values and ethics, since it has been doing so since before the advent of secularism, free from its influences. Putnam's (2012) paper is relied, in forming a basis for fact value entanglement as opposed to Robin's fact value dichotomy. Combination of economics and ethics is increasingly seen as plausible (Stiglitz, 2010). Early scholars such as al-Kindi, al Ghazali, al Farabi, Miskawaih and others discusses heavily on spiritual morality, ethics (theological, philosophical, religious)
Section two talks about the the crisis that IE is in. Siddiqi (2008) gave six points that results in IE's current state of failure, which are absence of historical studies, lack of empirical studies, insufficient institutional support, non adherence to ethical norms, weakness in vision and failure to distinguish between divine and human elements in the Islamic heritage.
I give this the rather long but understood acronym of HEIEtiVD. Mahyudi and Aziz declares that IE has collapsed and is questioning where is the direction next? Zaman (2012) also echoes Siddiqi and declares the failure of Islamisation of knowledge (IOK). Mahomedy (2013) states that IE has yet to achieve its own identity, beyond stating that it is underpinned by a strong moral ethic, and even that claim can be challenged.
Section three talks about the need to rethink the scientific structure of Islamic economics. The author agrees and uses Arif's (1985) on "how to philosophically construct Islamic economics as a legitimate body of knowledge" (Mahyudi and Aziz, 2017). Arif basically in his paper relies on ideas of philosophy of science as contained in Thomas Kuhn's (1970) 'The structure of scientific revolutions'.
Through Kuhn's approach, economic science moves from philosophic foundations, basis of micro foundations, paradigm, economic systems and economics, in a bottom up approach. Mahyudi and Aziz (2017) paper talks about the need to rethink on the second stage, ie. basis of micro foundations.
In the next section, they talk about the importance and need for the concept of Homo Islamicus to be replace with another concept, universal man. Homo Islamicus has seen many shortcomings, and is being trampled by Homo Economicus (Astay, 2007), while the altruistic or selflessness in the pursuit of welfare of others of IE is distinctively utopian.
The concept of universal man is neither strictly homo economicus, nor homo islamicus, but presents the human as it is, and a study of their behavior is done through the Quranic framework. This concept of universal man, is opens up the field of IE to be more inclusive and can be more attractive to economists from other fields to contribute. The basis of the universal man is from al-Ghazali's R-QAN (ruh, qalb, aqal, nafs) which makes up the elements of the human nature, which aims at the fulfillment of the SEIP (spiritual, emotional, intellect and physical).
It is very interesting to see the above table by Mahyudi and Aziz (2017), showing how the universal man more reflecting reality. A person does not simply, when achieving their end, rely on utitlity maximization or maximising maslahah, regardless of the person's view of welfare, he or she would normally be concerned in enhancing his or her welfare base on the person's basic needs.
Section one talks about how Islamic economics (IE) has an advantage when discussing about values and ethics, since it has been doing so since before the advent of secularism, free from its influences. Putnam's (2012) paper is relied, in forming a basis for fact value entanglement as opposed to Robin's fact value dichotomy. Combination of economics and ethics is increasingly seen as plausible (Stiglitz, 2010). Early scholars such as al-Kindi, al Ghazali, al Farabi, Miskawaih and others discusses heavily on spiritual morality, ethics (theological, philosophical, religious)
Section two talks about the the crisis that IE is in. Siddiqi (2008) gave six points that results in IE's current state of failure, which are absence of historical studies, lack of empirical studies, insufficient institutional support, non adherence to ethical norms, weakness in vision and failure to distinguish between divine and human elements in the Islamic heritage.
I give this the rather long but understood acronym of HEIEtiVD. Mahyudi and Aziz declares that IE has collapsed and is questioning where is the direction next? Zaman (2012) also echoes Siddiqi and declares the failure of Islamisation of knowledge (IOK). Mahomedy (2013) states that IE has yet to achieve its own identity, beyond stating that it is underpinned by a strong moral ethic, and even that claim can be challenged.
Section three talks about the need to rethink the scientific structure of Islamic economics. The author agrees and uses Arif's (1985) on "how to philosophically construct Islamic economics as a legitimate body of knowledge" (Mahyudi and Aziz, 2017). Arif basically in his paper relies on ideas of philosophy of science as contained in Thomas Kuhn's (1970) 'The structure of scientific revolutions'.
Through Kuhn's approach, economic science moves from philosophic foundations, basis of micro foundations, paradigm, economic systems and economics, in a bottom up approach. Mahyudi and Aziz (2017) paper talks about the need to rethink on the second stage, ie. basis of micro foundations.
In the next section, they talk about the importance and need for the concept of Homo Islamicus to be replace with another concept, universal man. Homo Islamicus has seen many shortcomings, and is being trampled by Homo Economicus (Astay, 2007), while the altruistic or selflessness in the pursuit of welfare of others of IE is distinctively utopian.
The concept of universal man is neither strictly homo economicus, nor homo islamicus, but presents the human as it is, and a study of their behavior is done through the Quranic framework. This concept of universal man, is opens up the field of IE to be more inclusive and can be more attractive to economists from other fields to contribute. The basis of the universal man is from al-Ghazali's R-QAN (ruh, qalb, aqal, nafs) which makes up the elements of the human nature, which aims at the fulfillment of the SEIP (spiritual, emotional, intellect and physical).
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