Human Knowledge Is Relative and Evolving

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Meaning

Shahrur maintains that human knowledge is not absolute; rather, it is relative and develops gradually over time. This relativity stands in contrast to God’s encompassing and absolute knowledge, while human understanding moves from contingency to necessity.

The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas

  • Type of argument: methodological.
  • Movement of the argument: regarding human knowledge as relative and gradual over time.
  • Central terms: human knowledge, relative, evolving, God’s knowledge.
  • Degree of centrality: foundational.

It establishes a reading criterion that prevents claims to absoluteness in human understanding and makes knowledge a historical movement capable of growth, while reserving complete encompassment for God alone.

Evidence

  • Supporting text: “He affirms that human knowledge is relative and evolving, whereas God’s knowledge is encompassing and absolute, and that human beings move cognitively from contingency to necessity.”

Location of the Evidence in the Book

  • Book: the Book and the Qur’an.
  • Location: in the opening sections of the book.
  • Type of evidence: close textual witness.
  • Verification marker: its relativity.
  • Reading note: this passage is suitable as evidence because it explicitly states the relativity of human knowledge and examines its types and development.

Degree of Documentation

  • Level: directly documented.
  • Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
  • Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is cited word for word.

Its Function in the Book

Its function here is declarative: it establishes a conclusion on which the subsequent course of the argument depends.

Note to the Reader

The atom is central because it regulates the entire horizon of interpretation.

Graph View

Backlinks8

Muhammad Shahrur Atlas