Journal Article
Published
Religious Criticism of Scientism The Subjectivity of Taufīq al-Ḥakīm in the Short Story “Fī Sanah Milyūn”
Abstract
This paper studied the Egyptian modern short story “Fī Sanah Milyūn” by Taufīq al-Ḥakīm. The story tells us about the
advancement of science and technology which was at its peak in 1000 CE, when people were made immortal. Then, they
abandoned metaphysics. The radical Subject that destroyed the scientism structure then appeared by giving up his life.
The question to be answered in this paper is: how did the Subject destroy tyrannical scientism and why? The analysis
revealed that scientism deprived humanity of human beings and it was necessary for the radical Subject to destroy
it. Through his scientific findings, the radical Subject created a transcendental paradigm of science as his criticism of
positivistic scientism. The Subject built a fantasy about the eternity of God and the mortality of human beings as the
replacement for scientism that had thrown God away from the picture and made human beings immortal. The movement
of the author is a movement of an empty and split Subject. To seek fulfillment, the Subject kept moving to approximate
The Real, namely a scientific order that had a transcendental-religious paradigm containing ordered values and honored
the humanity of human beings.
Publication Details
JournalIstanbul University Press
Volume34 (1)
Pagespp. 257-281
ISSN2651-5083
KeywordsCriticism of Scientism, Relation Between Science and Religion, Arabic Literature, Taufīq al-Ḥakīm, Žižek’s
Subjectivity
Item ID3222
Deposited30 Mar 2024 04:19