A WORD FROM THE SPECIAL ADVISO
Considerations on the philosophical implications of science and technology, the dialogue between science and the visions of the world carried by the great cultures of humanity as well as its connection to the quest for meaning driving each of us are the subject of intense activity happening at the international level.
This is particularly true in the Anglo-Saxon world with the existence of specific centers in major university campuses such as Berkeley, Oxford or Cambridge (and more recently also at the Paris-Saclay campus). But this particular research is also developing in different cultural spheres.
The creation of the "Science and the Quest for meaning" Center at UM6P will give students and researchers and, beyond that, the managers and decision-makers who are trained there, the opportunity to familiarize themselves with these issues and to nourish their thoughts on matters concerning the major challenges of the 21st century. I am convinced that the creation of this center is a significant step towards realizing the ambitions of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.
The Muslim world is the heir to an outstanding tradition of research in the field of science. Recent work by historians has shown that this interest in exploring the world, which is rooted in Qur'anic indications and the prophetic teachings on the quest for knowledge (talab al-'ilm), began within the period of the translations at the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate and did not stop after a hundred years as the orientalists have wrongly asserted: these efforts lasted for centuries, with centers moving around to different areas and locations around the Muslim world: Baghdad, but also Cairo, Damascus, Andalusia and the Maghreb, Central Asia...
The scholars of the Arab and Muslim world have made major contributions to multiple fields: mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry and medicine as well as engineering… Great scholars such as Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd or Ibn Khaldun have deliberated on the relationship between reason and faith, science and society from the standpoint of this quest for meaning. It is this same momentum that we must regain today, and our project’s intent is to contribute to this awakening. Morocco has many assets and can definitely lead this approach within the Muslim world, thus ensuring a connecting bridge between Africa, Maghreb and Europe.
There is a great desire among students to learn, but there are also real difficulties in accessing genuine information in this current context of “information overload” which is more than often “disinformation” on the internet and social networks. There are also fundamentalist discourses of different kinds that make this constructive and fruitful dialogue between science and humanities quite difficult. The Center will provide accessible training and resources to all of these students. The objective is to train men and women who will have acquired the necessary thought processes within their scientific and technical domains to think "outside the box" and to face the extraordinary challenges that will come their way in this intercultural world, a world we know it has its physical limits.
Bruno Guiderdoni holds a Ph.D. in Astrophysics and an Authorization to Supervise Research Work (“Habilitation”). He is a research director at the prestigious French research center CNRS. He is also a specialist in galaxy formation and is the head of the Lyon Observatory. He is Vice-President of the French Institute of Muslim Civilization in Lyon, and the director of the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies which has been striving for more than twenty-five years to promote dialogue between cultures.
Bruno Guiderdoni has published numerous articles and contributed to many books on Muslim spirituality, interreligious dialogue and the relationship between science and religion. He notably supervised the Science and religion in Islam (2012, Albouraq) the collective works as well as Islamic perspectives on contemporary science (2013, ICESCO). Bruno Guiderdoni has collaborated with various national and international institutions such as the John Templeton Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the High Council of ICESCO for Muslims outside OIC countries, the Italian Islamic Religious Community, the Orientation Council of the Foundation of 'Islam de France, etc. He has given numerous guest lectures at the Universities of Harvard, Cambridge, Edinburgh, etc. He has had the honor of giving a lecture (dars) in the presence of His Majesty King Mohammed VI during the 2015 Durus Hassania.
This is particularly true in the Anglo-Saxon world with the existence of specific centers in major university campuses such as Berkeley, Oxford or Cambridge (and more recently also at the Paris-Saclay campus). But this particular research is also developing in different cultural spheres.
The creation of the "Science and the Quest for meaning" Center at UM6P will give students and researchers and, beyond that, the managers and decision-makers who are trained there, the opportunity to familiarize themselves with these issues and to nourish their thoughts on matters concerning the major challenges of the 21st century. I am convinced that the creation of this center is a significant step towards realizing the ambitions of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.
The Muslim world is the heir to an outstanding tradition of research in the field of science. Recent work by historians has shown that this interest in exploring the world, which is rooted in Qur'anic indications and the prophetic teachings on the quest for knowledge (talab al-'ilm), began within the period of the translations at the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate and did not stop after a hundred years as the orientalists have wrongly asserted: these efforts lasted for centuries, with centers moving around to different areas and locations around the Muslim world: Baghdad, but also Cairo, Damascus, Andalusia and the Maghreb, Central Asia...
The scholars of the Arab and Muslim world have made major contributions to multiple fields: mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry and medicine as well as engineering… Great scholars such as Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd or Ibn Khaldun have deliberated on the relationship between reason and faith, science and society from the standpoint of this quest for meaning. It is this same momentum that we must regain today, and our project’s intent is to contribute to this awakening. Morocco has many assets and can definitely lead this approach within the Muslim world, thus ensuring a connecting bridge between Africa, Maghreb and Europe.
There is a great desire among students to learn, but there are also real difficulties in accessing genuine information in this current context of “information overload” which is more than often “disinformation” on the internet and social networks. There are also fundamentalist discourses of different kinds that make this constructive and fruitful dialogue between science and humanities quite difficult. The Center will provide accessible training and resources to all of these students. The objective is to train men and women who will have acquired the necessary thought processes within their scientific and technical domains to think "outside the box" and to face the extraordinary challenges that will come their way in this intercultural world, a world we know it has its physical limits.
Bruno Guiderdoni holds a Ph.D. in Astrophysics and an Authorization to Supervise Research Work (“Habilitation”). He is a research director at the prestigious French research center CNRS. He is also a specialist in galaxy formation and is the head of the Lyon Observatory. He is Vice-President of the French Institute of Muslim Civilization in Lyon, and the director of the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies which has been striving for more than twenty-five years to promote dialogue between cultures.
Bruno Guiderdoni has published numerous articles and contributed to many books on Muslim spirituality, interreligious dialogue and the relationship between science and religion. He notably supervised the Science and religion in Islam (2012, Albouraq) the collective works as well as Islamic perspectives on contemporary science (2013, ICESCO). Bruno Guiderdoni has collaborated with various national and international institutions such as the John Templeton Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the High Council of ICESCO for Muslims outside OIC countries, the Italian Islamic Religious Community, the Orientation Council of the Foundation of 'Islam de France, etc. He has given numerous guest lectures at the Universities of Harvard, Cambridge, Edinburgh, etc. He has had the honor of giving a lecture (dars) in the presence of His Majesty King Mohammed VI during the 2015 Durus Hassania.
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