We are at the heart of the meaning of Ibn Tufayl’s book: can we let ourselves forget the metaphorical structuring of the thought-experiment’s premiss and Ibn Tufayl’s explicit warning against taking his words literally, and superficially? Ibn Tufayl does not want us to expose our infants—he did not expose his own; he wants to show us what we can achieve if we extricate ourselves from society. The exposure is not a project of primitive science, but a symbol of the completeness of Hayy’s independence. The point is not to live on an island—that too is imagery—the point is merely to achieve
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