On Etymology of Ruslim

Date: 01.07.2017

Author: Ilya Potapov

Ruslim.Org

I. "Ruslim" is a combination of two words: "Russian" and "Muslim". For many people superficially familiar with the meanings associated with the two words, the term might invoke inconsistent reactions. But such combination is possible based on reasonable arguments.

Practice demonstrates that the cultural/national boundaries are one of the main epistemological impediments to knowledge. A set of (known) mechanisms tends to keep one in his/her cultural environment leaving almost no room to objectivity. A huge effort is required to surmount the disincentive of the known. We are always deluded by our culture. At the very least, it leads to ignorance, but in its extreme it leads to hostility towards others.

II. As this description is intended for non-Russian audience (Russians are very poor in English on average) it may make even less sense for the reader analyzing the two connotations. But this is the exact effect we are looking for.

We see the one world, because we are able to understand each other unequivocally. Yet we have so many disagreements. Sometime we can objectively justify them, but some other time they are based on no viable connection to the reality.

III. Finally, the most influential epistemological consequences are encoded in a number of statements from the Islamic (including Russian) tradition. The following basic scientific truths and traits of the human epistemological arrogance were available in an invariant form more than 1400 years ago(!):

"They listen to the word and take the best of it."

"Don't they see that the Heavens and the Earth were the one inseparable entity, then We have ripped them apart. And We have made any single living thing out of water. Can they believe?"

"Say, travel through the Earth and see how things have started. Don't you see that the creation is persistently being started and then repeated?"

"Fungi are neither plants nor animals…"

"He showed them their falsehood. They have realized it by saying to each other, we are deluded. Yet, they turned back to him saying, you just knew it is false [and continued arguing]."

"And they follow, but theories…"

"And you see the mountains still, but they move as move the clouds."

"I vow by the places of the stars [which when you see them are no longer where you see them]…"

"We have made the Sun a shining torch and the Moon a [passive] glow."

"And yet they are playful in doubt…"

"Every soul shall taste death…"

IV. This resource is about:

• being aware of the delusions and trying to avoid them (I.);
• the methodology to sift knowledge according to its credibility and building arguments around the reliable truths (II.)
• comprehensive understanding of things and processes: not by-many (multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary), but through-many-to-one (trans-disciplinary) (III.).