Summary Of Feral Wild Hayy

Throughout this story a feral wild young boy, Hayy, driven by curiosity about the world around him develops into a wise man through a series of breakthroughs of both his spiritual and intellectual self. During his life Hayy is often encounters new discoveries which spark his interest in learning more about how the environment and everything in it functions. Over time, reason, experimentation and observation shaped Hayy’s beliefs and established his notion of how the world works. Hayy believes that the whole universe and everything in it is driven by a “non-corporeal Cause” that creates an interconnected system between all beings in the universe. Hayy uses two main methods of inquiry to reach his beliefs, including experimentation and observation. He uses these methods according to what he is studying and what seems most appropriate for gathering information about different things. For example, when studying the nature of animals and living things on the island around him he would often perform experiments such as dissections and vivisections to gather information, but when studying the heavens above himself he
After finding fire and experimenting with it he hypothesized that the substance that had kept his caretaker alive was similar to the fiery substance that he now used to cook his meals with and after dissecting and vivisecting other animals he was able to gather his research to solidify his beliefs “The spirit employed the body much as he himself employed tools with which he fought, hunted, or dissected…And should the vital spirit leave the body…the whole body is stilled and dies” (117-118). Furthermore, after much pondering and thought Hayy realized that the spirit that is present in one species is the same as in others and is really one being shaping his views of the animal kingdom from being many different animals functioning separately to one kingdom all run by the one being