Date: Thursday, October 7, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Location:
Multiplexity is derived from the age-old Arabic term 鈥榤ar膩tib鈥� which literally means hierarchy or levels. We devised the term 鈥渕ultiplexity鈥� to refer to the multiple levels of existence, known as mar膩峁璱b al-wuj奴d, knowledge and truth. In social research, multiplexity would indicate a concept of the human being consisting of body, mind, and soul as well as a concept of social action (a鈥檓膩l) at various observable and unobservable levels.
Diverse versions of what we call multiplex approach can be found in many world cultures and religions and it is also deeply rooted in the traditional Islamic disciplines including philosophy, kal膩m, fiqh, and ta峁wwuf. Multiplex approaches stand in contradistinction to reductionist frameworks that rely on single-layered ontologies. In social sciences, such frameworks include social constructionism which reduces social phenomena to concepts or discourses, or behaviourism which tries to explain human behaviour solely in biological or psychological terms and considers human actions to be predetermined by fixed natural forces or biological qualities. Thus, we believe, exploring the idea of multiplexity will contribute to the critique of the reductionist ontologies emanating from positivism and idealism in the social sciences.