Intellectual, historical and civilizational traditions of Muslim social thought
sina sheikhi; Hossein KACHOYAN
Abstract
Saadi's Gulistan, which contains the highest number of Persian proverbs of any single work and served as a primary educational text in Iranian maktabkhaneh (traditional schools) for centuries, played a crucial role in shaping this ethic. This article, using a grounded theory method, examined Saadi's ...
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Saadi's Gulistan, which contains the highest number of Persian proverbs of any single work and served as a primary educational text in Iranian maktabkhaneh (traditional schools) for centuries, played a crucial role in shaping this ethic. This article, using a grounded theory method, examined Saadi's social ethics in his book Gulistan, arriving at the concept of "social service" as the ethical type. Saadi must be considered one of the greatest architects of an "ethics of service" in Persian literature. With rare skill, he presented mystical and ethical concepts in both prose and poetry, offering them to the general public in a simple and enduring manner.The mystical-ethical perspective on "serving the people" (khedmat-e khalq), evident in Saadi's works and the Islamic-Iranian mystical tradition, is not merely a spiritual teaching; it has had profound social and ethical impacts on the structure and dynamics of society. These impacts can be outlined in three main areas: strengthening social solidarity, reducing inequality and injustice, and shaping the collective spirit of society.Service to the people, which has played an important role in Iranian history, has been accompanied by diverse and multifaceted cultural and structural developments, with endowments (waqf), Sufi lodges (khanqah), and religious alms (khums and zakat) being prominent examples. In Saadi's thought, serving the people creates a solidarity among members of society that is distinct from the superficial and self-interested solidarities of the modern world.
Presenting an original critical discussion about the nature of the modern humanities and determining its relationship with religion
Hossein kachoeyan; Hamid Parsania; Fatemeh Fallahnejad Tafti
Abstract
The fundamental rupture between subject and object, initiated by Descartes and perpetuated in modern philosophy, became the primary cause for the elimination or reduction of the role of the imaginitrix as an "intermediary reality." Although this reduction was countered in German Idealism (Kant) with ...
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The fundamental rupture between subject and object, initiated by Descartes and perpetuated in modern philosophy, became the primary cause for the elimination or reduction of the role of the imaginitrix as an "intermediary reality." Although this reduction was countered in German Idealism (Kant) with attempts to revive the transcendental imaginary, it ultimately failed due to its confinement within a subject-centric epistemology and the preservation of metaphysical dualism. This trajectory culminated in the rebellion of the imaginary/will against reason in Nietzsche, intensifying the crisis of nihilism and existential meaning in the modern world. Using a directed content analysis methodology and comparative study of primary texts, this article aims to provide a Sadrian reading for transcending this crisis. The research novelty lies in elucidating the ontological potential of the imaginitrix in Transcendent Theosophy, contrasting it with the modern reduction to the subjective connected imaginary. Mulla Sadra, by proving the duality of the "connected imaginitrix" and the "separated imaginitrix" (the Mundus Imaginalis), portrays the imaginitrix as an intermediary (Barzakhi) and semi-abstract reality that establishes not only the link between intellect and sense but also the existential connection between the intelligible world ('Alam al-'Aql) and the material world ('Alam al-Madda). In this framework, the Soul (Nafs), being "corporeal in inception and spiritual in subsistence" (jismāniyyat al-ḥudūth wa rūḥāniyyat al-baqā'), is considered to possess an imaginitrix nature and to be an intermediate species. Contemplation (Tafakkur) is identified as the final act of the imaginitrix soul. This nature facilitates the intensified movement (ḥarakat ishtidādī) of the soul from immersion in the material to the stage of intellectual transcendence, re-establishing a transcendent (not transcendental) meaning of existence, transforming the subject/object rupture into a synthetic-perfectionist unity, and offering a monotheistic vista for confronting modern nihilism.
Hossein Kachooyan; Mohsen Saboorian
Abstract
It is now more than two centuries that social scientist, Orientalists, historians and Muslim thinkers had been paying special attention to Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun. Interpreters of Ibn Khaldun tried to classify his thoughts in some pre-existing categories, such as Platonic-Aristotelian philosophical ...
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It is now more than two centuries that social scientist, Orientalists, historians and Muslim thinkers had been paying special attention to Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun. Interpreters of Ibn Khaldun tried to classify his thoughts in some pre-existing categories, such as Platonic-Aristotelian philosophical and political traditions, Nationalism, or Comtian modern sociology. These classifications, not only dismiss the whole content of Muqaddimah, reducing it to positive Comtian sociology or a contribution to sciences of the medieval ages, but also disregard the structure of internal content of Muqaddimah, which itself objects to these readings to a great extent. In this paper we critically examined three well-known interpretations which overall considered epistemological, sociological and historical aspects of Muqaddimah. We then argued how one can interpret Muqaddimah in direct opposition with the original text. Seyed Javad Tabatabaei, in respect to his 'decline theory' of Muslims thought demonstrates the work of Ibn Khaldun as insufficient and incapable of forming major epistemological shift in Muslims though. In this regard, he names some historical points in the western thought and highlights lack of their counterparts in Muslims’ thoughts, a method we shall call 'reverse engineering of history'. Muhsin Mahdi and Taha Hussein, who are renowned world-wide, analyzed Muqaddimah from classical Islamic philosophy and Arabic nationalism points of view and shed light on some part of its truth in the cost of dismissing the rest.
Hossein Kachooyan; Abdolhossein Kalantari
Abstract
The "rule-governed" or "law-governed" nature of the social sphere is a fundamental issue in sociology that has occupied the attention of many classical thinkers, including Weber, Durkheim, and Marx, as well as contemporary theorists such as Habermas, Giddens, and Bhaskar. The positions taken on this ...
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The "rule-governed" or "law-governed" nature of the social sphere is a fundamental issue in sociology that has occupied the attention of many classical thinkers, including Weber, Durkheim, and Marx, as well as contemporary theorists such as Habermas, Giddens, and Bhaskar. The positions taken on this dual subject have significant implications for social thought formulation and, consequently, social change. Accepting either of these options portrays the "what" (ontology) of social phenomena in a particular way. Furthermore, it influences sociological epistemology and methodology, as well as topics such as the degree of human agency and the possibilities for social change. Although this discussion has expanded in the existing social science literature through the reflections of German hermeneuticists and historicists, and more recently through the ideas of the later Wittgenstein, particularly Peter Winch's theories, it can also be traced in Iran through the philosophical reflections of Allameh Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai and compared with the existing literature in this field. This article examines some of Allameh Tabatabai's works on the nature of social phenomena. It also identifies Tabatabai's perspective and reasoning system regarding rule-governance and law-governance in the social sphere within the horizon of new sociological debates. The research method used is library study and intra-textual analysis. Tabatabai considers "social matters" as part of "conventionals" and, on this basis, views the social sphere as rule-governed, directing social sciences towards "reason-seeking." However, he does not reduce all subjects and issues of social sciences and sociology to "rule-seeking." He believes that conventionals are rooted in "realities" on one hand, and thus social sciences can examine the real foundations in the formation of social conventionals through a "causal-seeking" method. On the other hand, these conventionals have real effects through a causal mechanism, which can again be causally examined with the help of social sciences. Based on this, Tabatabai presents a simultaneously rule-governed and law-governed image of social sciences, which has also been formulated in the views of some contemporary thinkers.
