Islamic Medicine and Evolutionary Medicine: A Comparative Analysis

Authors

  • Arthur Saniotis School of Medical Sciences. The University of Adelaide

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5915/44-1-8780

Keywords:

tawhid, fitra, microcosm-macrocosm, mismatch, integration

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5915/44-1-8780

The advent of evolutionary medicine in the last two decades has provided new insights into the causes of human disease and possible preventative strategies. One of the strengths of evolutionary medicine is that it follows a multi-disciplinary approach. Such an approach is vital to future biomedicine as it enables for the infiltration of new ideas. Although evolutionary medicine uses Darwinian evolution as a heuristic for understanding human beings’ susceptibility to disease, this is not necessarily in conflict with Islamic medicine. It should be noted that current evolutionary theory was first expounded by various Muslim scientists such as Al-Jahiz and Tusi centuries before Darwin and Wallace. In this way, evolution should not be viewed as being totally antithetical to Islam. This article provides a comparative overview of Islamic medicine and Evolutionary medicine, as well as, drawing points of comparison between the two approaches which enables their possible future integration.

Author Biography

Arthur Saniotis, School of Medical Sciences. The University of Adelaide

Arthur Saniotis received his PhD in social anthropology at The University of Adelaide. Currently, he is a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide. He is a trained medical anthropologist. His research interests include medical anthropology, evolutionary medicine, medical science, bioethics, public health, shamanism, comparative religion and futures studies. He is also part of climate change research team in the Discipline of Public Health at The University of Adelaide where he has contributed in research projects and collaborative publications.

Downloads

Published

2012-06-29

Issue

Vol. 44 No. 1 (2012)

Section

Islamic Perspectives

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).