ABSTRACT
The chapter begins by introducing a short account of religion according to critical rationalism (Section I). This is followed by a brief discussion of a cluster of closely connected notions, namely, ‘algorithmic compressibility’, ‘complex systems’ and ‘logical depth’ which have direct bearing on the study of all sorts of texts including the text of the Quran. The main argument of the next section, Section III, follows from the discussion in Section II: that the Quran is a complex system with a significant logical depth and that its message can be best understood with a critical rationalist approach. In Section IV possible similarities between the critical rationalist approach and a famous approach to the Quran, known as the method of istintaq (interrogation) of the Quran, are explored. In Section V some possible criticisms of the critical rationalist approach to studying the Quran are considered. The chapter closes (Section VI) with a recapitulation of the main arguments introduced in the chapter.
