A Theoretical Study of Free-Thinking Courses

More than ten years have lapsed since the Leader of Islamic Republic of Iran put forth the idea of Free-thinking Courses at the universities, but till date it has not been implemented. The present article is an attempt to discuss one of the main obstacles in the way of the realization of the said idea, that is, epistemological skepticism towards the possibility of dialogue that exists in modern theorization on the one hand and the disparity of procedure in practice and ethics in the culture of modernity on the other. The Iranian academics, as actors who are in the frontline of encountering the theoretical and cultural waves of the West, by absorbing parts of this atmosphere, willingly or unwillingly are not much inclined towards dialogue. Attempts have been made in the present paper to study the issue within the framework of Alasdair MacIntyre notion. One of the main concerns of MacIntyre is the impossibility of the rational dialogue in the culture of modernity. He maintains that emotionalism in theory and in social arena is the main reason for this problem. He tries to develop a general theory of virtues for reviving the possibility of rational dialogue, and to do that, he emphasizes on the importance of practice, narrative and tradition. His theoretical framework has been used in this article to highlight how reconstruction of a single base for ethics and commitment to tradition can provide the necessary conditions for the realization of the idea of free-thinking courses.