Wednesday, September 13, 2006  GBIT: Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Alive, Son
of Awake)  My next choice for this series is Hayy ibn Yaqzan by
Ibn Tufail - a Spanish Muslim philosopher, physician and
scientist from 12th century. Simon Ockley's translation can be
found here in pdf. A better and modern translation is by Lenn
Goodman but it is not available on the internet unfortunately.
Its a story of a boy, the nature of whose existence was shadowy
to an extent that there are two completely rivaling accounts of
his origins. One account ascribes his origin to spontaneous
generation, deducing from intricate details of matter that
eventually evolved into life. The other account is necessarily a
legend, a human drama in which a royal infant grows up away from
society and culture. The boy represents an ideal man with an
innate desire to 'know'. Being totally isolated from
'intelligent' life he gradually becomes morally conscious. He
discovers shame, jealousy, aspiration, desire, eagerness to
possess and practical reasoning with