Critical Study of Relationship Between Religion, Ethics and Politics in the Paradigm of "Philosophical Secularism" by Adel Dahir

This paper seeks to critically examine the religion's relationship with ethics and politics in the paradigm of "philosophical secularism" by Adel Dahir, a contemporary Arab philosopher and intellectual. The philosophical secularism of Dehir is a philosophical, meta-historical and meta-religious theory about the separation of religion from politics and ethics and nonintervention of religion in worldly affairs and social life. Considering independence of human intellect, Dahir has given priority to normative-practical knowledge over the religious knowledge. The principles and foundations of Dahir's intellectual-philosophical system in the paradigm of philosophical secularism include priority and supremacy of reason on religious sources (rationalism), autonomy, the priority of morality on religion, and, consequently, ethical knowledge on religious knowledge, and priority of epistemology on religious knowledge in social and political life. In this theory, there are two types of secularism: sclerotic secularism and flexible secularism, the first is philosophical and the latter is historical. Philosophical secularism is based on two principles including the analysis of concepts and epistemology, which their explanation paves the way for understanding of philosophical secularism. Daher's methodology is rational, and philosophical secularism aims to counter the paradigm of "Islamism."