The Theory of Innatism and its Capacity for Evolution in the Social Sciences

Some Muslim thinkers have made a claim about the capacities of the theory of innatism for evolution and progress of the social sciences, which has been less elaborated. This article aims to evaluate this claim with the presupposition that the theory of innatism can provide new horizons for the social sciences, especially in important fields such as sociology of religion, sociology of ethics, family sociology, social pathology and sociology of social change. The approach is a philosophical one in which the opinions of Muslim philosophers, especially great ones such as Allameh Tabatabai have been employed. Thus, the article has presented a general outline of this theory and its principles and assumptions which are summarized in five principles: the gradation of human nature, the distinction between instinctive innate characteristics and rational innate ones, the possibility of conflict between innate characteristics, the possibility of deviation from innate characteristics, and the necessity of distinguishing divine innate characteristics from secondary nature. Then, In order to answer the question of what concrete effects the theory of innatism can have on the evolution of social sciences, I have attempted with an exploratory analytical approach to display this effects by referring to actual instances from sociological discussions. I have accomplished this task, as an innovation of this article, with a focus on the following issues: the possibility of recognizing other societies, the rationality of the people of other societies, the priority of the internal changes of human beings over the external changes of societies in most issues, the possibility of attributing many cognitive and cultural developments of societies to alteration of the secondary nature of individuals and eventually the improvement of capacity of the social sciences to explain issues such as the origin of the family, the difference between transcendent human beings and evil human beings, the secularization of society, the effect of faith and morality on the strength of marital bond as well as their effect on the authority of religious leadership.