University of Toronto Commencement Speech by Judea Pearl on Science and Human Freedom.
On June 21, 2007, Judea Pearl received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Toronto.
The degree was offered "in recognition of Professor Pearl's groundbreaking contributions to the field of computer science, as well as his efforts, in the face of personal tragedy, to promote cross-cultural dialogue and reconciliation."
Bio
Judea Pearl
Judea Pearl is a computer scientist and statistician, best known for his prominent work on the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence, and in particular on Bayesian networks and causal reasoning.
I really love Judea Pearl's passionate words and do sympathize with his life experiences. No parent should have to experience the loss of a child.
Yet, Judea may be engaging in a disingenuous manner when he shares that there were no oppressive or impeding forces that were brought upon those cultures whom he lists as living between 500 CE and 1500 CE. Imam Hamid al-Ghazali, as well as other Imans, may have impeded Ijtihad, "the process through which Islamic scholars can generate new rules for Muslims. Ijtihad was one of the recognized sources of Islamic knowledge by early Islamic scholars", during the 2nd millenium.
The Iman deceptively declared that mathematics was a tool of the devil. One does not need an imagination to take note of what effect this deluded declaration had on such an immaterialist leaning, yet curious about how the world works community of people. Making such an unwarranted declaration, must have had a devasting effect to their scholars and to those who engaged in numerous fields of science and scientific inquiry.
As for a "miracle" happening in Europe when incredible discoveries were being made by Europeans, I am not sure what Judea is implying. I hope he is not of the questionable mind to think that an imagined immaterial and/or invisible hand or force pressed upon the great scientists of Europe to come up with their discoveries. Yet, these are my thoughts.