An Analysis of the Implications of Modernity on Humanity: Developing an Epistemological Framework

Abstract

The paper seeks to explore the hidden assumptions that are imbedded in a modern, atheistic, naturalistic philosophical outlook, and the conclusions of which are often overlooked. Particularly, the authors highlight that a philosophically naturalistic outlook leads to untenable conclusions regarding human morality, volition, and subjective conscious experience. The analysis finds that a modern approach, if taken to its logical conclusion, would leave humanity bereft of meaning. The authors argue that the naturalistic approach requires leaps of faith regarding human cognitive capacities, as it assumes sound reasoning without justification to such a premise. The authors conclude that religious grounding, specifically an Islamic conceptual framework, is necessary to account for consciousness, logic, and morality, while the abandonment of this tradition along with the metaphysical foundation it provides leaves the modern man struggling to justify rationality, moral arguments, and even basic articulation with which he rejects faith in God. Thus, the authors conclude that modernity, while commended for its advancements in the sciences, must not lose the metaphysical underpinnings upon which it is founded.