IBN KHALDUN’S SCIENCE OF SOCIETY 3
Question 2
In the onset of his work, Ibn Khaldun aimed to perform a deep study on how the human
civilization originates and rises. In his distinctive historical approach, he found similar and
common features concerning the human civilization. According to his philosophy, the nomadic
life lived by a certain human society epitomizes the primitiveness of the humans in that society.
After that, such society progresses through the various stages of nobility, by acquiring judges and
rules thereby become institutionalized(Simon, 2012). The individual human beings also grow
and move in a similar journey from an isolated origin to their full participation in the formalities
of the society.
His Muqaddima philosophy further goes ahead and gives the reasons that lead to creation
of human society, and how the patterns in human society result in the rise of power groups that
eventually become a foundation for step-by-step progress and decline. Cooperation and solidarity
are key pillars for civilization and wellbeing of a society.
From his work, a dynasty formation starts from primitive ways with family relations,
empathy, descent, and reciprocity being the grounds for the rise of human civilization. Human
selflessness also features prominently and its one of the prerequisites for organic development.
Nomadism then ushers the period where people acquire their innate ability to organize
themselves and their surroundings based on domination. Power is also important in formation of
dynasty and it is favoured by descent and lineage. Power leads to struggle that brings in fall of a
dynasty. The tussle of power brings revolution and uprising. However, a society experiencing
revolution is a civilized and modernised one as revolt signifies a paradigm change something that
is not found in primitive societies. The work of Ibn Khaldun was instrumental in studying and
understanding the French revolution and the Arab uprisings.
