Understanding the lived experience of producing Islamic social science

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mahdi Jamshidi 1
Abdul Hussein kalantary 2
1 PhD student at the National Defense University in the field of Strategic Knowledge Management
2 Faculty member, University of Tehran
10.22034/zehn.2025.2068388.2141
Abstract
Since Islamic social science has been developing for several decades, albeit with slow growth and various ailments, it is necessary to study this epistemic experience and identify its shortcomings and weaknesses. On the other hand, the author, as one of the actors in this field, has lived experiences related to this and can articulate this epistemic experience. The author's issue here is to prove the thesis that the interpretive understanding method is effective and appropriate for such study. Accordingly, various aspects of the application of this method have been discussed, and its relationship with tacit knowledge has been specified. It has also been revealed that this method is consistent with religious logic and is not the case that a method opposed to the notion of modern social science is imposed on Islamic social science. Lastly, the validity of this method has been addressed, and several mechanisms for proving its realism have been proposed, which include the possibility of alternative explanations in uncertain conditions, long-standing engagement and companionship with the issue, reflective reconsideration of beginnings and mechanisms, internal coherence of subcategory propositions, and comparative analysis among similar interpretations.
Keywords
Islamic social science
interpretive understanding
lived experience
implicit knowledge
history of knowledge
knowledge production

Subjects

 
35. Audi, Robert (2011). Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge, New York: Routledge.
36. Bevir, Mark; Blakely, Jason (2018). Interpretive Social Science: An Anti-Naturalist Approach, London: Oxford.
37. Borenstein, Michael; Hedges, Larry V.; Higgins, Julian P.T.; Rothstein, Hannah R. (2009). Introduction to Meta-Analysis, London: Wiley.
38. Card, Noel A. (2011). Applied Meta-Analysis for Social Science Research, New York: The Guilford Press.
39. Cooper, L. Harris, Hedges, V., Valentine, J. C. (eds.) (2019). The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
40. Creswell, J. W. (2023). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, Los Angeles: Sage.
41. Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods, America: Sage.
42. Polanyi, Michael (2009). The Tacit Dimension, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
43. Polanyi, Michael (2015). Personal knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy, Chicago: The University of Press.
44. Rabinow, Paul and Sullivan, William M. (1979). Interpretive Social Science: a Reader, California: California University of California Press.
45. Ringer, Fritz (1997). Max Weber's Methodology: The Unification of The Cultural and Social sciences, Massachusetts: Cambridge.
46. Rosenthal, Gabriele (2018). Interpretive Social Research an Introduction, Translated by Ruth Schubert, New York: goettingen.
47. Weber, Max (1949). the Methodology of the Social Sciences, Translated and edited by Edward A. Shills and Henry A. Finch, New York: Illinois.