Classification of Iranian Elites Confrontation with the Western Civilization

This article tries to formulate the diverse forms of Iranian confrontation with the Western civilization by focusing on the modernity as the most important aspect of this civilization. For this purpose, the article is focused primarily on the concept of modernism as the most important effect of Western civilization at least in terms of representation in Iranian society; then, the whole confrontation of Iranian society with Western civilization is classified under three topic of West fascination, West selection and West aversion using interpretive method. The first two cases of these three types, contain subsets that are marked as distinct and defined, and for each type and their sub-sets, a set of intellectual representatives and citation samples are provided. The article, suggests resulted classification as a basis for understanding mental interaction of Iranian society with what is referred as the totality of Western civilization, in the field of intercultural studies and international politics.