EDITORIAL

Ftom the papets presented at the twenty-first annual conference of theAMSS in 1992, we have chosen here Sirajul Hussain's short article on"Islamic Science: Making of a Formal Intellectual Discipline." The otherpapets presented at the conference are being published sepamtely in theform of conference proceedings and should be available in one volumeat the twenty-second mual conference. This will be held at the headquartersof the IIIT on 15-17 October 1993.In this paper, Sirajul Hussain discusses some epistemological issuesrelated to the foundation of "Islamic science" as a formal intellectual discipline.He stresses the need for establishing an ontological necessity forthe uniquely monotheistic concept of tawbiii in Islam in terms of recentdevelopments in neuropsychology. This would show that the tuwltidiepisteme proceeds essentially in a purely non-Euclidean space. In thisway, we can show that the tuwh7liepisteme is amenable to scientificcorroboration. He also emphasizes the need to structure Islamic scienceas a formal academic course to be taught at the undergraduate and gtaduatelevels.Dilnawaz Siddiqui discusses selected major issues in instrUCti0~1-communication technology from an Islamic perspective. He tries to laythe groundwork by identifying major issues from a broad Islamic view.In addition, he outlines theoretical assumptions behind the identificationand analysis of instructional technology and develops six sets of relevantissues classified under the categories of humanity, message, medium,methods, milieu, and measurement.Mumtaz Jafari examines critically the objectives, the evolutionarycontext, and the value system in which counseling flourishes. Right at theoutset, he makes it clear that he is not providing an alternative frameworkbased on Islamic teachings. Rather, he is making a modest attempt toexamine critically the parameters of western counseling in order to illustratethe contrast between fundamental premises of Islamic ideology andpractice. The framework used is the Islamic outlook on life and the associatedobjectives and values that Islam regards as determinants of human ...