Sapient Thoughts #40: Beauty & The Recognition of God — Part 2: Extending the limitations (2021-08-16) #

0:00:02 [Music]
0:00:16 brothers and sisters welcome to another
0:00:18 episode of sapient thoughts where we
0:00:21 discuss theo philosophical issues where
0:00:23 we answer
0:00:25 contentions against islam and where we
0:00:27 provide a robust case for the veracity
0:00:30 of islam in today's episode we're going
0:00:32 to be continuing our multi-part series
0:00:34 on beauty and the recognition of god
0:00:37 now in the last episode we had discussed
0:00:40 the idea of a person individuals
0:00:43 cognitive limitations and we discussed a
0:00:47 few things related to that we discussed
0:00:48 how one's environment
0:00:50 where one lives or what the surroundings
0:00:52 of a person may be
0:00:54 can actually have an impact on their
0:00:57 cognition in other words it could lead
0:00:59 to a type of cognitive bias
0:01:01 so with that said
0:01:03 the other question one could ask related
0:01:06 to that is that how do we transcend that
0:01:08 cognitive bias
0:01:09 and if there are limitations if there
0:01:12 are epistemic limitations one has how do
0:01:14 we
0:01:15 broaden our epistemic limitations such
0:01:18 that we're able to have a wider
0:01:20 epistemic sphere
0:01:22 and one answer to that question would be
0:01:24 to take information from other people so
0:01:27 if indeed we have cognitive limitations
0:01:29 and cognitive biases then perhaps we can
0:01:31 rely on others for information and
0:01:35 skills and knowledge and things like
0:01:37 that
0:01:38 and to highlight this point there's a
0:01:40 statement from elizabeth fricker who is
0:01:42 a philosopher and researcher at oxford
0:01:44 university i believe and she writes
0:01:47 about
0:01:48 this concept of extending one's
0:01:50 epistemic limitations and she says it
0:01:52 should be immediately obvious
0:01:54 that in the conditions of modern life we
0:01:56 rely hugely on the epistemic and
0:01:59 practical skills of others for example i
0:02:02 allow my car mechanic to find out what
0:02:04 is at fault with my car when it won't
0:02:07 start
0:02:08 and
0:02:09 i then proceed to ask him or her to fix
0:02:12 it for me and one relies on one's doctor
0:02:15 to use information from symptoms and
0:02:17 medical tests to diagnose what is wrong
0:02:20 with one and then to prescribe an
0:02:22 appropriate treatment
0:02:23 now the point here is that no individual
0:02:27 person can gather knowledge about every
0:02:30 single field that one may need and so
0:02:32 thus one relies on the skills and
0:02:34 knowledge of others
0:02:37 and hence that epistemic limitation can
0:02:40 be extended
0:02:42 and indeed it is extended because we
0:02:44 rely on doctors we rely on pilots to fly
0:02:46 planes and all of those areas of
0:02:48 information that we don't have or those
0:02:50 skills that we don't have we rely on the
0:02:53 information and knowledge and skills of
0:02:55 others
0:02:56 now that's fine
0:02:57 but coming back to my original thesis
0:03:00 and that was
0:03:01 that if
0:03:03 a person
0:03:04 is engaged or if a person would like to
0:03:08 know truth as it really is
0:03:11 how could they do that well the thesis
0:03:12 that i put forth is that if a person
0:03:14 wants to know truth as it really is an
0:03:16 exposure to beauty or natural beauty
0:03:20 can
0:03:21 cause a person to allow a person to see
0:03:23 truth as it really is
0:03:25 that being the case we understand we
0:03:27 have cognitive limitations so perhaps
0:03:29 one could say well i can't fully 100
0:03:33 trust my cognition my own individual
0:03:35 cognitive abilities
0:03:36 so then therefore if i want to see truth
0:03:38 as it really is
0:03:40 can i just trust the cognitive abilities
0:03:42 of others and the knowledge and skills
0:03:44 of others well that's what we wanted to
0:03:46 discuss in today's episode is that what
0:03:48 we want to see is that even though our
0:03:51 epistemic limitations can be can be
0:03:54 widened or our epistemic borders can be
0:03:56 broadened can be widened because of the
0:04:00 skills and knowledge and
0:04:02 and and cognitive abilities of abilities
0:04:04 of others
0:04:05 that also doesn't will not allow us to
0:04:08 see truth as it really is
0:04:09 in some sort of absolute fashion
0:04:12 so let's highlight this point
0:04:13 specifically
0:04:14 um when most people think about a map of
0:04:17 the world
0:04:18 they usually see a map where you have
0:04:20 north america and south america you have
0:04:22 europe and asia and then below that if
0:04:25 we're looking at vertical positioning
0:04:27 you have
0:04:28 africa parts of africa
0:04:30 that are below the equator australia
0:04:32 being built equator new zealand etc
0:04:34 this is the map as we generally see it
0:04:36 and it can be traced back to ptolemy
0:04:39 and ptolemy when he first drew this drew
0:04:42 the map of the world as it was known in
0:04:44 his day drew europe on top
0:04:47 and drew
0:04:48 africa or the known parts of the world
0:04:51 of africa at that time on the bottom
0:04:53 now the thing is we may and we may think
0:04:56 that okay well this is just how the the
0:04:58 map of the world was drawn there was no
0:04:59 sort of there's no sort of bias in this
0:05:02 but when we compare ptolemy's map
0:05:05 to other cartographers for instance when
0:05:08 we look at the 12th century cartographer
0:05:11 by the name of muhammad al-adrisi
0:05:13 we see that when he drew his map he in
0:05:16 fact put
0:05:17 africa on the top of the map and put and
0:05:21 placed europe on the bottom of the map
0:05:24 now
0:05:25 one may ask well which map then is
0:05:27 correct
0:05:28 would it be
0:05:29 you know europe on the bottom and africa
0:05:32 on top if we're talking about vertical
0:05:34 positioning or would it be the maps as
0:05:37 we know them today which as i mentioned
0:05:39 can be traced back to ptolemy where
0:05:41 europe is on top and africa is on the
0:05:43 bottom and of course north america south
0:05:44 america and so on
0:05:46 which map is correct well the reality is
0:05:49 neither map can said to be objectively
0:05:51 correct because if one was to travel to
0:05:54 outer space there's no sort of anchoring
0:05:57 point and there's no sort of positioning
0:05:59 vertical positioning whereby one could
0:06:01 make a judgment call in other words
0:06:03 imagine if you're in outer space
0:06:05 uh because there's no sort of
0:06:07 positioning there's no anchoring for you
0:06:09 you could see you know you could see
0:06:11 europe on top and africa and bottom but
0:06:13 again because of lack of gravity and
0:06:15 things like that you could very well
0:06:17 think it completely normal to see africa
0:06:19 on top and europe on the bottom when
0:06:21 we're talking about vertical positioning
0:06:23 so there is no anchorage point
0:06:25 so why did ptolemy draw his map the way
0:06:28 he did and mohammed al-adrisi draw his
0:06:30 map the way he did well one reason that
0:06:32 we may put forth is that the maps were
0:06:36 drawn based on one's world view
0:06:39 now if you have not yet seen the
0:06:41 episodes where we discussed world views
0:06:43 i highly recommend you check out that
0:06:45 sapient thought series on world views
0:06:48 and the fitrah now that being said we
0:06:51 could assume that this is based on one's
0:06:52 world view perhaps ptolemy when he was
0:06:56 drawing his map the known world at the
0:06:59 time or the known civilized world at the
0:07:00 time was indeed europe everything beyond
0:07:03 europe may have been considered less
0:07:05 civilized and thus when we're talking
0:07:06 about vertical positioning perhaps
0:07:08 there's also the idea that something
0:07:10 that's on top is higher and better and
0:07:13 superior whereas something on the bottom
0:07:16 i.e that which is less civilized is of a
0:07:18 lower value is you know less than and so
0:07:21 you have this vertical positioning which
0:07:23 has this significance in terms of
0:07:25 superiority and perhaps this may be the
0:07:27 reason why now when we come to
0:07:29 muhammadan map
0:07:30 we may assume the same thing perhaps
0:07:33 because of muhammad al-idris world view
0:07:36 and when he was drawing a map he
0:07:38 understood because he's coming from
0:07:39 islamic worldview islam to be superior
0:07:42 and therefore the arabian peninsula and
0:07:45 africa to be drawn on top with mecca and
0:07:47 medina to be drawn on top and
0:07:50 europe to be drawn on the bottom this is
0:07:51 one reason why the map may be drawn in
0:07:54 this way or why muhammad al-adrisi may
0:07:57 have drawn the map in this way but yet
0:07:59 another aspect of muhammad world view
0:08:02 that can be considered or can be taken
0:08:04 into consideration
0:08:05 is that indeed he comes from an islamic
0:08:08 worldview that being said when you look
0:08:10 at the map that muhammad adrisi drew
0:08:13 there's a couple of interesting features
0:08:15 one of those features
0:08:17 is that when you look at the vertical
0:08:19 positioning in comparison to the
0:08:21 cardinal direction
0:08:23 so when we're talking about vertical
0:08:25 positioning we're talking about up and
0:08:27 down when we're talking about cardinal
0:08:29 positioning we're talking about north
0:08:31 south east west
0:08:32 so in the map that mohammed al-adrisi
0:08:35 drew it's interesting that the term for
0:08:38 south
0:08:39 he placed on top
0:08:41 so junob
0:08:42 the plate the term for north which is
0:08:44 shimad he placed on the bottom
0:08:47 and the term for east is on the left and
0:08:49 the term for west is on the right
0:08:52 now
0:08:52 so it's not only the idea of a map being
0:08:55 drawn let's say with africa on top and
0:08:58 and and and the raven peninsula on top
0:09:00 and europe on the bottom but even the
0:09:02 cardinal direction has been drawn
0:09:04 differently or has been labeled
0:09:06 differently
0:09:07 so one of the reasons we may put forth
0:09:10 is that in the islamic framework or in
0:09:12 the islamic tradition islamic paradigm
0:09:14 there is the concept of the prayer
0:09:17 and the prayer timings are dependent
0:09:19 upon the son and so when one is looking
0:09:22 at the sun one may start off in the
0:09:25 morning time by
0:09:27 looking or gazing east and so if one is
0:09:29 looking at the sun it's rising from
0:09:31 there they understand that this would be
0:09:32 the east where it sets
0:09:35 right where that's setting would be west
0:09:38 in terms in the english language so we
0:09:39 have these two terms that are very clear
0:09:42 now the thing is what about terms on the
0:09:44 the right and the left
0:09:46 so the term that we have for south
0:09:49 is janub the term we have for north is
0:09:52 shimal
0:09:53 well we know that the term for left in
0:09:56 the arabic language you can say that
0:09:58 that is also shima for instance there's
0:10:00 a hadith of the prophet sallallahu
0:10:02 alaihi
0:10:09 do not eat with your left hand for
0:10:11 indeed shaytan eats with his left hand
0:10:13 the term for left hand here or left is
0:10:16 shimad
0:10:17 so
0:10:18 left would be shimal north and the the
0:10:20 on the right would be genu or the south
0:10:23 so when he is drawing the map
0:10:25 you have one element of the positioning
0:10:27 of the sun based on the idea of the
0:10:30 prayers and the prayer timings and how
0:10:31 we understand the sun and so muhammad
0:10:34 al-adrisi's worldview is going to have
0:10:36 an impact on how he's drawing the map
0:10:38 not only in terms of vertical
0:10:40 positioning but also in terms of
0:10:42 cardinal direction
0:10:43 all of that is based on a person's world
0:10:46 view and so therefore
0:10:48 there's no sort of objective right and
0:10:50 wrong but it's based on the person's
0:10:53 world view and from one perspective one
0:10:55 would say that that has that's based on
0:10:57 a an assumption or a philosophical
0:11:00 assumption or or a first principle if
0:11:02 you remember from what we had discussed
0:11:05 on in the in the in the series or the
0:11:07 episodes on world views and the fitra
0:11:10 now you may ask
0:11:12 well so what
0:11:13 i mean it's just a map right i mean does
0:11:14 it really have any sort of consequences
0:11:17 and the thing is there's actually real
0:11:19 world consequences to having uh such a
0:11:23 to relying upon a certain map over
0:11:25 another there was a study that was done
0:11:27 that's called on southbound ease and
0:11:29 northbound fees
0:11:31 literal consequences of the metaphoric
0:11:33 link between vertical position and
0:11:35 cardinal direction and this was a study
0:11:37 that was done by
0:11:38 nelson simmons in 2009
0:11:41 and what they did in this study is that
0:11:43 they were trying to
0:11:45 see
0:11:46 that within
0:11:48 human perception
0:11:49 do they
0:11:51 how do they feel when it comes to
0:11:52 vertical positioning
0:11:54 in the sense that do they consider
0:11:56 something up
0:11:57 and going in that direction to be more
0:11:59 difficult
0:12:00 as opposed to going down right and so
0:12:03 remember vertical positioning here
0:12:05 related to cardinal direction
0:12:07 cardinal direction north south vertical
0:12:09 perception up down
0:12:10 like there's there is there may be a
0:12:12 perception that a person thinking if i'm
0:12:14 going north i'm going up
0:12:16 and so therefore going up may seem
0:12:19 harder again they talk about metaphoric
0:12:21 link right and going south may seem
0:12:23 easier it's kind of like thinking about
0:12:24 going uphill versus downhill when in
0:12:27 reality
0:12:28 you know you're not really going uphill
0:12:29 or downhill per se by just by going
0:12:31 north and south so they wanted to put
0:12:33 this to the test and they came to some
0:12:34 conclusions with their study
0:12:36 they said in in one one part of their
0:12:39 study said we reported seven studies
0:12:42 that demonstrate that the metaphoric
0:12:44 association between cardinal direction
0:12:47 and vertical position is pervasive and
0:12:50 consequential
0:12:51 indeed information about cardinal
0:12:53 direction can affect consumers judgment
0:12:56 of time
0:12:58 effort and cost
0:12:59 specifically because they associate
0:13:01 north with up and south with down
0:13:04 consumers expect northbound travel to be
0:13:07 more time consuming
0:13:09 less convenient and costlier than
0:13:12 southbound travel now of course as the
0:13:14 study goes on
0:13:16 there was uh
0:13:17 some of the things that were highlighted
0:13:18 in the study was that certain
0:13:21 transportation companies took advantage
0:13:23 of that so they would charge people
0:13:25 for going the same distance going north
0:13:28 they would charge them more than going
0:13:30 south
0:13:31 and all of this is not really based on
0:13:34 any sort of real objective uh
0:13:36 understanding of north and south of
0:13:38 vertical position or cardinal direction
0:13:41 because as we saw the map is something
0:13:43 that's you can't say what's one's
0:13:45 objectively true or not because again if
0:13:47 one wants to go in outer space
0:13:49 how do you tell which one is up and
0:13:51 which one is down
0:13:52 but yet it has real world consequences
0:13:55 and therefore the point i wanted to
0:13:57 highlight in this particular section in
0:13:59 this particular episode is that we rely
0:14:02 on maps and things like that but even
0:14:04 the maps that we rely on which we're
0:14:05 relying on the judgment of the
0:14:08 cartographer who in turn has his or her
0:14:11 own
0:14:12 cognitive limitations and biases and
0:14:14 world views and so on and so forth
0:14:16 so if we have cognitive limitations and
0:14:19 we want to extend or we want to
0:14:20 transcend our cognitive biases and
0:14:23 extend our fil our epistemic limitations
0:14:26 we can do that by
0:14:27 by way of other people and the the
0:14:29 expertise of other people but they in
0:14:32 turn are going to have cognitive
0:14:34 limitations
0:14:35 and they're going to have epistemic
0:14:36 limitations and cognitive biases of
0:14:38 themselves so if that's the case in our
0:14:41 quest to see truth as it truly is
0:14:44 how are we to do that
0:14:46 and this this is especially true when
0:14:48 we're talking about the concept of the
0:14:50 divine
0:14:52 this is a deep question that has real
0:14:54 world and afterward implications so when
0:14:57 one is trying to see the truth of this
0:14:58 particular question as it is
0:15:01 if one understands cognitive limitations
0:15:03 of oneself and the cognitive limitations
0:15:05 of someone else
0:15:06 how can one extend those cognitive
0:15:08 limitations well one of the ways to do
0:15:12 that and this is what's being presented
0:15:14 uh as a thesis in this series is that
0:15:18 when one has exposure to natural beauty
0:15:21 it actually enhances one's cognition
0:15:24 and
0:15:25 that exposure to natural beauty also has
0:15:28 another effect
0:15:29 and that effect can help a person to see
0:15:32 truth as it really is what does that
0:15:34 affect well we're going to talk about
0:15:35 that in the next episode of the series
0:15:38 so until then this is fahad islam and
0:15:42 these are sapient thoughts