روشنفکری

The impact of modernity on non-western societies has forced them to redefine their traditions and related institutions. Islamic societies have not been immune to the influence of modernity, and Muslim intellectuals have been deeply involved in the concepts of modernity; Concepts such as: rationality, science, progress and secularism, individual freedom, social equality and democracy. Ali Shariati was also in such a field of thought. The main question of the article is what is the relationship between tradition and modernism in Shariati's thought. The hypothesis of the research is that Shariati, like most Islamic intellectuals, was in the confrontation between tradition and modernity. Due to facing the social issues arising from this encounter, he has definitely proposed some ideas regarding these two.The background of research in this topic is very rich, the most important of which have been reviewed. The article "Analysis of the position of religion in interaction with modernity in the thought of religious intellectuals of the second Pahlavi period" tried to examine the relationship between religion and modernity (case study: Shariati and Bazargan). The article "Shariati, Political Modernity and the Islamic Revolution" tried to "evaluate some modern concepts in Shariati's thought in relation to political modernity and examine its impact on the Islamic Revolution". Also, the article "A reflection on Shariati's political thought; Unsuccessful attempt to combine tradition and modernity" has been searching for an answer to this question: "What is the most important Sharia reason for creating a dialogue between tradition and modernity and what was the result of this attempt?" The article "Meaning of the West and Modernity in Shariati's Thought" tried to explain Shariati's view of the West and modernity. These researches are important works, but they only deal with the political aspect. The innovation of this research is the attention to epistemological dimensions.

The methodology of this article is an interpretive approach. This interpretive approach has been textual. But this interpretive approach has been based on a theoretical framework. This theoretical framework has been a critical reading of the relationship between tradition and modernity. This critical reading, by distancing itself from the common theory of the antagonistic conflict between tradition and modernity, has sought to understand the connection between the two. Therefore, the emphasis on the critical reading of Ali Shariati's original texts has been based on that theoretical framework.

While Ali Shariati had a deep look at the historical features of the tradition system and was aware of the weight of the heritage of the tradition, at the same time, he also paid attention to the effects of modernity and knew that neither of these two could be ignored. Therefore, he never wanted neither tradition to overcome modernity nor modernity to marginalize tradition. He tried to open a third way by criticizing both modernity and tradition. His third way is a critical reconstruction or in other words a kind of renaissance or religious renaissance. A renaissance that enabled the system of tradition (at the heart of which was the collection of religious teachings) to face modernity and accept it critically. To open such a way, Shariati considers a vital role for intellectuals. Shariati emphatically condemned the fanatical and irrational nature of traditional concepts and expressed his dissatisfaction with modernity based on blind imitation of the West, the spirit of capitalism and modern scientism. With such presuppositions, Shariati criticized the modernity, and by distinguishing between good and bad, he chose what he needed. Then he started the same interaction with the tradition system. Then he puts his selected components together to present a new architecture. Modern building with traditional materials.Finally, it can be said that Shariati's approach to tradition and modernity was a type of "selective modernity". Shariati saw modernity not as a whole and a unified nature, but as a multifaceted collection that, instead of accepting such a collection at once, should be carefully selected in its parts. It means that Shariati approached the tradition with a critical ruler from the point of view of modernity and its requirements and "selected" the necessary components, and had a "selective" approach to modernity itself. In the end, he passed both of these through the sieve of his critical view, so that instead of "rejecting modernity" (hostility to modernity) or "praising modernity" (immersing in modernity), he chose "selective modernity". In this view, there is neither blind hostility nor unconditional surrender; But a critical and conscious choice!

There is a perplexing transition in Dr. Reza Davari's thought, when he problematizes the relation between Iranian and Western history/cultures, on which this paper is focusing. The interprative objective is to clarify this transition on the basis of the implicit relation between the two most fundamental concepts in his earlier and later thought respectively westernization and underdevelopment. Although, by this transition, the level of discussion transits from an ontologico-philosophical to an intellectualist one. So, there are two different levels of problematization in his thought which differ deeply. Therefore, we are not just dealing with the substitution of fundamental concepts, but with different problematizations and different levels of discussion. Obviously, there will be new problems arising which are not just conserning with the justification of the transition but with the problematization of westernization itself. Finally, it's been concluded that in order to clarify these new problems, we should step back to the level of philosophical discussion, and first of all to the clarification of the I-not-I relation which has been neglected thouroughly in the whole project.

One of the questions that have for long been the concern of Iranian thinkers and intellectuals is the subject of indigenous criteria and indigenization, and so several versions have been presented in this respect. This idea was first mooted in response to the colonization and influence of western culture and then it developed gradually. Such concepts like indigenous and Islamic science are the outcome of the discussions. Having reviewed the history of Al Ahmad's political thoughts and activities, the present paper investigates how indigenization- as a historical concept came into Al Ahmad's literary, political, and intellectual activities and then developed to prepare the ground for having a kind of indigenous human sciences. The studies show that during 1320 to 1340 (solar) Al Ahmad gradually approached the indigenous life of Iranian people and Islamic- Shiite worldview under the influence of such factors like western and Iranian intellectual's literary and theoretical tradition, political events of the time and his traditional-religious education. In some cases, he modified his modern and intellectual view in favor of Islamic tradition.

Social thought always develops in a historical context related to a particular culture and each context has a significant role in the formation of the social thought of any thinker. The present paper studies Dr. Soroush's social thought from epistemological, ontological and anthropological perspectives and depicts his social thought in a social, cultural and political context. Dr. Soroush is a contemporary Iranian thinker and intellectual. Therefore, his thought ought to be explored in the light of the intellectual trend. He has relativistic view in epistemology, has tends towards liberal anthropology anthropological foundations and he provides a romantic anthropology in some of his works. He has an inclination towards German idealism (concrete) in his thoughts. Although different phases are noticed in his thoughts, and in each phase the intellectual ground can be found.

Secularization is a process whereby religion and religious beliefs lose their role and significance within the various areas of the social life, a process which finally ends in secularism. Included the areas in which the process has penetrated PENETRATED THROUGH is the realm of education and Pedagogy and mainly human sciences. Nowadays, science and knowledge, in particular humanities, have a peculiar perspective and principles; i.e. A perspective with no religious horizon, which is a result of the gradual impact of the secular movement. Secularism was developed in the world of Christianity. The theoretical underpinnings underlying its foundations were the objective to separate religion from the worldly matters, which brought about modernity and the western civilization. There are numerous factors contributing to the development of secularism, which can generally be traced back in the problems and deficiencies existing in the Christian Middle Ages. Iran, also, has not been safe from the destructive impacts of this movement, traces of which can be observed in various social arenas including education, science and knowledge, as well as in the views held by certain intellectuals and scholars.

This essay is an attempt to critically understand the utility of the concept of postmodernism in African philosophy, and by extension the analysis of the postcolonial African predicament. Its urgency derives from the growing literature on the interpretation of the postmodern in African studies. For those I will call the “detractors”, there is a certain conceptual absurdity in the idea of postmodernism in a continent that isjust grappling with the exigencies of modernity. Thus, Africa cannot be postmodern before being modern. For the “champions” of the necessity of postmodern theorizing in Africa, postmodernism offer an avenue to escape out of the cul de sac of intellectual nativism that has precluded Africa from the benefits of global open space of ideas. The essay argues that these critical interpretations emanate from an attempt to read toomuch into what I will call the postmodern minima. This strategy has the advantage, I contend, of giving African philosophers a leeway— beyond the mere critique of Eurocentrism—for confronting the twin problem of African identity and African development.

According to great deal of researchers and thinkers, professor Mutahhari and Iqbal Lehouri were two of the most famous and influential contemporary reformers. Based on the aforementioned idea, the researcher has struggled to present an exact description of the professor Mutahhari’s reformist ideas and their principles and components. In this regard, in the first place, the importance and necessity of reformation and its background throughout history is explained; and then, the reformist movement of Iqbal as a person, whose reform movement has been noticed and emphasized by the professor Mutahhari, will be clarified and explained, and also Mutahhari's evaluation of Iqbal's reformist ideas and movement will be mentioned afterwards