Great contributors in THINKING Part 1

1. Great contributors in THINKING Part 1 UHS 2122

2. Inspiration from the Qur’an • “Verily! In the the creation of the heavens and earth, and in the alteration of night and da, there indeed signs for men of understanding. • Those who remember Allah while they are standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, AND THINK DEEPLY… • …about the creation of heavens and the earth, (saying): Our Lord! You have not created all these without purpose, glory to You! Save us from the torment of the Fire.” (Ali ‘Imran: 190-191)

3. Neuroplasticity • Thinking and engaging in activity can physically alter the brain, a concept called ‘neuroplasticity’. • Norman Doidge (author of The Brain That Change Itself): “We now know that when we have thoughts, we rewire the so-called hardware in our brains.” • Ref: Sarah Scott (2008). ‘The Plastic Brain’ in Reader’s Digest (Asia) August 2008. • Conclusion: KEEP THINKING & BE IN DEEP THINKING.

4. Search a brief bio on: • Al-Khawarizmi. • Teresa Amabile. • Csikszentmihalyi.

5. Father of algebra, al-Khawarizmi • He develop algebraic thinking, a kind of logical and critical thinking. • Gerard of Cremona and Roberts of Chester translated the algebra of Al Khawarizmi into Latin. Mathematicians and universities all over the world used Al Khawarizmi’s works until the 16th century, since 12th century. The Arabic text lost except the Latin remained.

6. Algebra • He gave some solutions to a few linear and quadratic equations. Algebra derived from the Arabic word “al-jabir” which means “to restore”. • Six cases of equations: • ax2 = bx • ax2 = c • ax = c • ax2 + bx = c • ax2 + c = bx • ax2 = bx + c

7. As stated by Michael H. Morgan, author of Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists, Al-Khwarizmi’s new ways of calculating (algebra) will “enable the building of a 100 story towers and mile-long buildings, calculating the point at which a space probe will intersect with the orbits of one of Jupiter’s moons, the reactions of nuclear physics… intelligence of software, and the confidentiality of a mobile phone conversation.”

8. Algoritmi • Algorithm is derived from his name Algoritmi (in Latin; Al-Khawarizmi). • He also explained the use of zero, and developed the Indian system of numerals, commonly known as the Arabic numeral system. • Algorithms are critical to computers, programming, engineering, and software design.

9. Zero • Another profound discovery Al-Khwarizmi made from the Hindu mathematicians was the number “zero”, which did not exist in Roman Numerals. The term “zero” started as “sunya” in Sanskrit which means “void” and “empty”. In Arabic it is “sifr”, and in Italian “zefiro”, and finally “zero” in French.

10. Not only was this a huge breakthrough in mathematics, but also in the fields of engineering, technology, astronomy, philosophy, and even in theology. In respect to theology, the “zero” – nothingness – taught Al-Khwarizmi that reason and revelation ultimately leads us to the same source (i.e. God). Reason and revelation, or Intellect and Love, must coexist. This was also a fascinating topic all throughout the Islamic world (and eventually beyond) because it re-confirmed the Qur’anic declaration.

11. God is in the numeral (one; the Oneness of God) as well as how God created us out of “nothing”: • “Did the human being forget that we created him already, and he was nothing.” (Qur’an19:67)

12. Amabile & 3 components • Teresa Amabile (1983): Three compulsory components in individual creativity. • Specialist; in certain discipline e.g. science, mathematics, botany, engineering etc. • Creative thinking skill; creativity and imagination capability. • Motivation; intrinsic motivation. • The components are influenced by the work environment which inspired by teacher, employer, friends and others.

13. Intrinsic motivation • Collins dan Amabile (1999): “Studies of personalities of highly creative people have described them as being totally absorbed in and devoted to their work and people who doing what they loved were more creative in their pursuits.” • The activity is perceived as interesting, involving, satisfying, or personally challenging.

14. Love your job! • Amabile (1989): What drove you to work so hard, even years after attainingwide readership, fame, and financial success? • John Irving: The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that it’s not work for me.

15. Intrinsic motivation (IM) & creativity • Barron (1963) & MacKinnon (1962): Highly creative people are devoted to their work. • Csikszentmihalyi (1990) & Gardner (1993): IM as a personal characteristic that contributes to creativity. • Perkins (1988): Creative people are excited by complex problems and driven by opportunities to solve challenging, boundary-pushing problems.

16. IM & creativity 2 • Csikszentmihalyi (1990): Creative people pursuit actively seek FLOW experiences and that creativity is more likely to result from such states. • Amabile et al. (1994): More IM from the Work Preference Inventory (WPI) -> more highly creative.

17. IM & creativity 3 • People who work in a creative field (e.g. professional artists, research scientists, and student artists) tend to be more intrinsically motivated toward their work than the general population (Amabile et. al., 1994; Amabile, Philips & Collins, 1996; Pollak, 1992)

18. Maturity & creativity • Sidney Sheldon, in his late eighties, still writes best-selling novels. At 97, architect Oscar Niemeyer is developing one of his most ambitious projects. • Douglas Eby (2005): Being creative throughout our mature second halves of life can be nurtured by staying open and curious, seeking ways to reconnect with interests we may have had as children, but abandoned in favor of the mundane necessities of making a living.

19. Components of IM & EM • IM - Self-determination, competence, task involvement, curiosity, enjoyment, & interest. • EM - Competence, evaluation, recognition, money, or other tangible incentives, & constraints by others.

20. Political & language factor Simonton (1990): Political instability indicated by coups d’état, revolts, and assassinations seemed to assert a negative influence on creativity in science, philosophy, literature, and music in the generation following the instability. Bilinguals -> more understand -> more knowledge -> more creative.

21. Motivated by belief • The facts on belief role in the life of the companions of the prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. are well known. For instance, Mus’ab bin Umair left his wealth just for the sake of faith or iman – the Islamic belief. In fact, belief as if the miracle thing in the history of the believers since the prophet Adam a.s. Belief has changed the Arab life, building their reputation as the world-class leader and ruler, scholar and innovator, nation and civilisation.

22. Furthermore, belief has civilized the non-Arab community too. Al-Biruni believed that the acceptance of Islamic faith by the Turks resulted in a great achievement in the social development as well as the science and technology development. Turks became among the earliest bibliophiles and founders of library in Islam. In the history of Islamic civilization, they have founded few great schools, hospitals, observatory, and masjid (Adnan, 1976).

23. Even the Sahara settlers received the ‘benefit’ of belief as Timbuktu flourished as the great knowledge city besides Fez, Cairo, Qurtuba, and Baghdad in the ancient time. University of Sankore, Jingaray Ber, and Sidi Yahya were universities with high reputation as University al-Azhar producing thousands of international graduates under mentoring and supervision great scholars such as Ahmad Baba as-Sudane who wrote more than 60 books on various subjects including law, medicine, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics etc. (Zulkifli, 2003).

24. Dowson (2005) has drawn the following model to visualize the role of belief in any religion towards the motivated behaviour influenced by the metaphysical motivation. He concluded that the religious beliefs are motivational because of highly valued outcome, assured expectancies, and positive religious efficacy. Expectancy X Values Motivated behaviours Motivations Beliefs

25. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) found that the high achievement by the creative people in any field is not because of the materialism – the material motivations. Metaphysics motivations that rooted by the belief could be understood as the non-material motivations. However, Muslim intellectuals should choose Islam as their belief system, the most correct and true than other belief system, and the God bless should be the ultimate goal in their career.

26. Ziauddin (2007) has made a bright analysis in comparing between Ibn al-Haytham (a 13th century great scholar; the author of over 200 books on astronomy,mathematics, physics and philosophy) and Abdul Salam (a 1979 Noble Prize winner for physics), two great physicists in different era of Islamic history. Both of them have showed an excellence knowledge and research habit as well as great discoveries. Their works were inspired by the Qur’an and Abdus Salam’s word is quoted: ‘The deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze'.

27. Ziauddin also argued that there is no problem with Islam upon the declining of knowledge golden era in Islamic history as below: “The teachings of Islam are the same now as they were a thousand years ago. Islam was not a problem' then. It is not the problem' now. Islam was there when science flourished. Islam remained while science, learning, knowledge and creativity declined to their present parlous state. So what happened? Perhaps if we fixed a date, identified the tipping point, we could pinpoint what provoked the downward spiral.”

28. Inspired by belief • Calligraphy and the Quranic recitation as major of Islamic arts - artistic creativity. • More inventions and innovations for make life (to worship God) easier - scientific and social creativity.

29. Five pillars of Islam & creativity: • Belief declaration. • Pray - science of architecture, astronomy (telescope, astrolab etc.), civil engineering (water supply system etc.) etc. • Fasting - astronomy, geo-information etc. • Zakah - economy, finance, banking, ICT etc. • Hajj - civil, mechanical and transport engineering, management (food, hotel etc.), ICT etc.

30. Extrinsic motivation (EM) • …the motivation to engage in an activity primarily in order to meet some goal external to the work itself, such as attaining an expected reward, winning a competition, or meeting some requirement… (modified from Amabile)

31. Csikszentmihalyi & 3 components Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (1999) studied 91 creative persons (politician, scientist, businessman, artist and novelist) from 1990 until 1995 and developed a model system of individual creativity, that consists of three components: • Culture. • Domain. • Social recognition.

32. 3 2 1 • Feldman (2000): “…the person who is creating must master the domain, must acquire expertise.” • Piirto (2004): “people don’t make genuine contributions to a domain unless they have mastered the domain.”. 2 - DOMAIN

33. Chandrasekhar in Csikszentmihalyi’s book • “There are two things about me which people generally don’t know. I’ve never worked in anything, which is glamorous in any sense. That’s point number one. Point number two: I have always worked in areas which, during the time I have worked on them, did not attract attention. • The word success is an ambiguous word. Success with respect to the outside? Or success with respect to oneself? And if it is a success with respect to the outside, then how do you evaluate it? Very often outside success is irrelevant, wrong, and misplaced. So how can one talk about it? Externally, you may think I am successful because people write about some aspects of my work. But that is an external judgment. And I have no idea as to how to value that judgment.

34. Success is not one of my motives. Because success stands in contrast to failure. But not worthwhile effort in one’s life is either a success or a failure. What do you mean by success? You take a problem and you want to solve it. Well, if you solve it, in a limited sense it is a success. But it may be a trivial problem. So a judgment about success is not something about which I’ve ever been serious about in any sense whatever.” • (Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Nobel laureate physicist; American; he wrote The Mathematically Theory of Black Holes (1983), Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science (1987) etc.)