نشریه معرفت سیاسی
سال سوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 6، پاییز و زمستان 1390)

Virtuous ethics in classical political philosophy correspond to normative and finalist types of ethics and concern such concepts like virtue and vice, boon and good, moral obligation, volitional act, voluntary agent, happiness, and perfection. Virtue-oriented ethical theories are centered on: purposefulness, emphasis on the righteous agent rather than mere act, the reliance of values on rational-natural values, the excellence of agent's intentions and motives,the superiority of wisdom over obligatory rules and the priority of moral examples. Virtuous ethics can be studied from four perspectives: historical, purposeful, pluralist or monistic, and religious or secular.

Today, liberalism is considered the most influential school, which a large number of governments, especially western governments, follow. According to its worldview and doctrinal anthropology, liberalism means knowledge of the ends, knowledge of ought tos and ought not tos, and modus operand, which clearly exerts profound influence on orientating the work of an individual and government. In an attempt to recognize the position of human ethics in the foreign policy of liberalism, the present article touches on liberal anthropology, teleology, and methodology and reviews the main elements of liberal foreign policy, including: "racism", "utilitarianism",deceit", and "violence". In fact, these elements help us form an idea of the liberal rationality of foreign policy. According to liberalism, any act or effort which is not done within the framework of these elements is regarded unacceptable.

One of the fundamental issues on the theory of the guardianship of religious jurist is reviewing the evidence in the transmitted sciences on it. By "guardianship" we mean the presidency and authority of a person who is capable of extracting and inferring Islamic rules and laws from Islamic sources. The present paper tries to offer an approach to a new framework by which the transmitted evidence in are explored, thus paving the way for using other neglected evidence. To this end, the main concern of this paper is to examine the typology of the evidence in the transmitted sciences on theguardianship of religious jurist. The evidence is of three types: negative evidence that prohibits referring to and establishing relations with conventional governments in different levels; positive evidence through which those who are suited and are granted God's permission to rule are known; and finally collated evidence which refers to the narrations in which the message of either of two previous sides is presented.

Man's life is formed within a certain political system and government. Practically, it is hard to imagine man living without government. Hence, government is always considered a social necessity. Having a government is a rational necessity. The transmitted traditions testify to this rational judgment. One of these traditions is related from Imam Ali (peace be upon him) and can be found in Nahjul- Balaghah. In response to the extremist view of Kharejites who shouted the slogan of "no decree but Allah's decree" rejecting the idea of having a government, Imam Ali stated: "people should have a ruler, whether good or bad". There have been several interpretations of this tradition because the word just ruler seems to match the word dissolute ruler. Using a theoretical approach and analytical method, the present paper analyzes the aforementioned tradition and concludes that matching righteous ruler with unfair ruler is intended to stress the fact that it is necessary for a society to have a government.

According to Islamic thought, God is the creator and possessor of the universe. In order to make use of the things which belong to Him we need to get His permission. Political progress demands benefitting from the world oflegislation and again demands getting the Possessor's permission. A divine guardian manifested in the Holy Prophet (May the blessing and peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny), Imams (peace be upon them) and during the period of occultation, a just jurist who enjoys the requirements is the only one whom God has given permission to make use of what is in this world in line with the aim of creation. Accordingly, Islamic political progress is a process resulting from a good political act performed by natural or legal personalities with the permission of jurist guardian and is intended to achieve man's happiness by administering justice, living an agreeable life and bringing about a dynamic perfection-oriented civilization. Therefore,political progress in a society which follows a guardian jurist cannot be comprehended except through the theory of a designated jurist guardian. The other views will, therefore, have no direct relationship with political progress. This entails that such thing like insight, devotion, political resistance and obedience are of the essence in the guardianship of religious jurist.

The ideological and pragmatical disputes between Islam and the West, as two major ideological systems in modern world, always manifest themselves in political system-making and in proposing the theories related to it. These two ideological systems always criticize and have disputes with each other over philosophical, legal, and sociological matters. Today western modernity, especially liberal democracy, seriously criticizes the political system in Islam which is based on the principle of guardianship of religious jurist. Among the main challenges facing Islam are the secular explanation of the political system in Islam, the criticism directed to the structures and conventional explanation of the conduct of the elites and different local populations related to the political system in Islam.

Security is one of the words which have several definitions due to the objective and theoretical realities of modern world. It is necessary to discussthe question of security from a religious perspective, first due to the extensive discussions on its theoretical and conceptual aspects in scientific circles in recent decades, and secondly, due to the establishment of a religious government in Iran, and the attention it gives to the theoretical, religious, and practical aspects of security. Using a method based on both traditional evidence and rational evidence and considering some objective realities of security, the present paper tries to elucidate some of the religiousconcepts of security. Therefore, it discusses the view adopted by Islam on such things like faith, man, the world, and the hereafter, and expounds the mechanisms for life in the framework of the law of guardianship and the constructive understanding and certain modus operands concerning security.