A Critical Reading of Sociological Studies (With Emphasis on Ebrahim Towfigh's Works)

Studies on Iranian modernity and historical sociology are of significance because they deeply influence the other fields of modernity and the state of sociology in Iran. Ebrahim Towfigh is one of the Iranian sociologists who focus on the genealogy of “the present” when examining Iranian modernity and sociological studies. The present article attempts to analyze his works to understand the genealogical studies of “the present” which have determined the state of tradition, modernity, and sociology in Iran. For this purpose, the data from 27 works of Towfigh was gathered using the documentary method and then it was analyzed systematically. The meta-analysis of his works revealed the following concepts: neglecting the systematic relations between knowledge and its power-related nature, reducing the systematic relations between knowledge and the will to power to the relation between knowledge and power block, reducing the knowledge system to a knowledge content, disconnecting discourse of transition, neglecting the representation crisis in the relation between knowledge system and the condition of society, paying no attention to weakening the subject by post-colonial theory, the critique of ideology on behavior level but believing in the radical critique of ideology on cognition level, putting present theory in front of sequential theory. The above concepts, on the one hand, lead to the recognition of the individuality of the present time and on the other hand, they lead to the reproduction of continuity of neglecting the decline. In addition, the aforementioned concepts on the one hand help us become aware of the consequences of post-colonial approach and on the other hand, they lead to subject erosion when reading transition of the present moment by sociology in Iran.