پژوهش نامه انتقادی متون و برنامه های علوم انسانی
پیاپی 104 (تیر 1401)

Not only have the ideas of Marxism analyzed societies, but also shaped social action. Marxists have read each Marx's works in a number of ways, and claim to have provided the closest interpretation to Marx. In the meantime, Louis Althusser, a French neo-Marxist thinker of the twentieth century, with a structuralist reading, has considered Marx's second period of thought, which is scientific. This article addresses the question of how Marxism can be analyzed not only in its purely economic deterministic nature but also in the political aspect of states in Marxist analysis. In this regard, we have introduced and critically reread the book “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” by Louis Althusser, translated by Mr. Roozbeh Sadra. The book has been criticized in terms of form and ideas. Theoretically, Althusser, on the one hand, determines the culture and ideological mechanisms of the state in socio-political developments and, on the other hand, promotes a kind of conspiracy illusion. The form of the book is desirable in terms of cover design and requires some writing corrections that are documented in the text.

This article is based on a review of “Socialism: A Failed Idea That Never Dies” (by Kristian Niemietz). Where Niemietz believes that the idea of socialism is still alive despite its successive failures, I will argue that the problem is not that the "ideas" are dead or alive. Human mental phenomena include ideas, judgments, and wills. Ideas never die; whether it is the idea of socialism or the idea of God or the Idea of the dragon. The main issue is the rightness or wrongness of human will. Accordingly, I have tried to show, in a critical phenomenological way, that socialism is a will to failure. If it is repeated and experienced a thousand more times, it will achieve nothing but failure. On the contrary, and by historical experience, it is capitalist liberalism that has set before us the right and progressive will. For those of us who have stepped forward in the process of progress, the moral imperative is to put aside the socialist temptations of equal distribution. The beginning of our progress is to step on the path of production. Production and exchange of capital are the other words of free exchange and the right to freedom. It is only with this right that we can achieve ourselves in this worldly world.

Mostashar al-Dawla's treatise "One Word" is one of the most important and original writings of the Qajar period in the field of legalism and on this basis, is the foundation of understanding the idea of legalism in Iran in the Qajar era and also recognizes the lineage of the constitutional movement in Iran. Hamed Ameri has studied this work in his book “Modernity and Legalism” and this article is a critique of his writing about this book. The most important critique of the book, it is descriptive and the author lacks a critical approach to the work, while the treatise "One Word" by Mostashar al-Dawla can be criticized in various ways, which are discussed in this article and the most important critique of the above treatise is that Mostashar al-Dawla’s has become reductionist in understanding the law and its meaning and this has led to her serious misunderstanding of the place and meaning of law in the modern world. This misconception has had a significant effect on the non-realization of legalism in the contemporary history of Iran.

The main focus of this article is a review of “Spinoza and Politics” by Etienne Balibar. Balibar's idea is that Spinoza's philosophy is essentially political. Balibar begins his study of Spinoza's philosophy with the argument that it cannot be understood as if it existed only on the transhistorical plane of pure theory and that, on the contrary, each of his major works must be understood as an intervention in a specific political and philosophical conjuncture. For this reason, according to Balibar, it is impossible to separate Spinoza's metaphysics from his politics, as if the latter were an application of the former. Instead, Spinoza's philosophy must be seen as political in its eternity, even its most speculative utterances constitute responses to certain political imperatives and are tied to specific historical stakes. It can be said that Balibar was influenced by Althusser in his study of ideas and uses Althusser's term "conjoncture". Accordingly, while examining innovation, methodological features, and Balibar's interpretation of Spinoza, we will point out the mistake of Persian translators in translating the "conjuncture" (conjoncture).

Vanessa Martin is an English-speaking scholar of contemporary Iranian history who attempts to examine the Constitutional Revolution from an external perspective and its socio-political developments in her book . Therefore, the purpose of this article is to study the book analytically-critically in terms of form, method, theory and content. Vanessa Martin's focus in this book is to identify political currents and socio-economic and local developments outside of Tehran that have had a direct impact on the Constitutional Revolution and its aftermath. A review of the book shows that the author has tried to define local constitutionalism in relation to national identity. The findings show that from the author's point of view, in terms of the traditional context of Iranian society and the clergy, the constitutional revolution is considered a historical and religious issue, but intellectuals consider it a mythical and modern issue. Vanessa Martin's innovation in this book is to identify the role of local forces, especially in the regions of Azerbaijan, Bushehr, Fars and Isfahan in the Constitutional Revolution, but in the type of classification of political currents and their definition of the constitutional revolution, there are problems that need to be corrected in later versions.

“The Sociology of National Charisma” is a book by Majid Fouladian that analyzes the collapse of social structures and the rise of national charisma. The author uses a historical structural method to study the structural changes on the eve of the two constitutional revolutions and the Islamic Revolution and concludes that in the Qajar period, the construction of social networks prevented the formation of comprehensive solidarity. Considering such construction, it seemed unlikely the emergence of national charisma, but at the end of the Pahlavi regime, due to the collapse of the traditional structure and the emergence of social crises in a society that had reached a level of national cohesion, and with the emergence of ideology based on society culture, it became possible to form a national society and national charisma. In this article, we intended to review the book “The Sociology of National Charisma” in the framework of integrated analysis (structure-agent). The results show that Fooladian does not explain the relationship and role of followers in the emergence of charisma. In fact, the author merely explains the structures and their effect on the emergence of charisma, and ignores the agency of charisma followers in the emergence of charisma.

The global financial markets crisis of 2007 and its economic consequences provoked widespread protests and riots in many countries, which in North Africa led to a change of political system. The study and analysis of these events became the basis for the compilation of the book "From Crisis to Collapse" by Dr. Bashirieh. The present article, which was prepared with the intention of reviewing this book, is organized in three sections: introducing the work, place of the work in the Iranian publishing space and among the other works of the author, and evaluation of form and content of the work. In this book, we are faced with weighty and revised prose and a coherent and uniform text. The theoretical framework of the work is the same theory that the author has formulated for the analysis of revolutions and the process of transition to democracy in his previous works. The organization of the chapters is not done in a clear and distinct way. The title of the work does not reflect the main content of the work completely. Despite the emphasis on the title of the work, the dimensions of sustainability and vulnerability of political systems are less studied inside the text.

Throughout the history of philosophy, there have been questions that the most important of which can be formulated and identified around the concept of justice and freedom. In the twentieth century, the relationship between justice and freedom became more and more important for human societies, and the most important scientific works addressed it. The theory of justice proposed by John Rawls in this regard became the focus of scientific discussions and aroused the concern of politicians. Robert Nozick defended justice as entitlement in Rawls' critique of justice as fairness. They first introduced the welfare state and second the minimal government as eligible for justice in societies. Due to this, other dualities such as individual rights / collective good, equal status /equal opportunity, need / merit, etc. were proposed. In this article, after introducing the sections of the book "Statelessness, Government and Utopia", an attempt is made to analyze Nozick's criticisms of John Rawls, followed by a critical re-reading of some objections to the idea of entitlement justice and Nozick's minimal government.

The “New Left Thinkers” is undoubtedly one of the most controversial and newsworthy works of the late English philosopher, Roger Scruton, which has been published in recent decades as a critique of the new left thinkers. Scruton analyzed, and critiqued the most important contemporary philosophers in the last decades, aimed to decrypt the new speak of the left discourse. The most common aspect between these thinkers, more than anything else, is the distance from the right discourse. By critical reading, Scruton tried to simplify the idea, complex language, and complicated theories of the New Left. He wanted to show how these ideas were emerged in emotional reaction to the historical events of their time, and actually they were rooted in the human’s need for faith and belief in something. Although criticizing the mainstream of Scruton’s time is a courageous subject, special and scares, and we can admire Scruton for doing this, in final analysis of this work, I must say Scruton argued and criticized the new left in a way that he should be criticized too. In the other word we can criticize Scruton as the same point that he criticized and accused the new left. Regardless of the content of his arguments, as the methodological view, his approach to these texts is selective, unscientific and emotional. By critical reviewing of this book, I try to prove my claim about the selective and emotional approach of Scruton in this article. Without arguing the content of his discussions, as far as possible, I show that the value-based approach and believing in single truth, and anger and hated of the Left and the New Left are the basis of his argument in criticizing the personality of thinkers, selecting and describing their theory and finally Seizure as he desired the argument. He argued in the same way and the same style that he claimed the New Left did it.

Nicholas Luhmann's systems theory as a social theory has created a good perspective for understanding the social system and the modern world. "Theory of Systems and Paradigm Shift in Sociology" compiled and translated by Ali Ardestani is an important work about Luhmann. This work contains five articles by Nicholas Luhmann entitled: Changing Paradigms in Systems Theory, New Systems Theory, Society Theory, Modernity of Science, Globalization, or the Global Community: How to Understand the Global Community, Speech and Silence, and three articles by other authors entitled Why Systems, Heritage Luhmann is the foundation of the social systems. By focusing on social theory, communication theory, and evolution theory as the main elements of system theory on the one hand and placing the social system in relation to the environment of both the modern world and the world community on the other hand, the work in question has provided an acceptable explanation of systems theory. However, the work in question is not without flaws; poor coverage of topics, as well as incomprehensible translations and equations, are notable. Therefore, in the leading article, while explaining the theory of systems, which constitutes the main content of the book, it is reviewed in three parts: form, content, and translation.

The crisis that arose as a result of the decline of the Abbasid caliphate in the middle of the seventh century AH for Sunni political thought continued for centuries. This crisis in the tenth century for a prominent thinker named Roozbehan Khonji, a prominent Sunni theorist, led to the attempt to revive the caliphate by appealing to the kings who held political power in his time, rather than concerning religion. The book “The Political Thought of Khonji, The Wandering Faqih” examines the views and ideas of Khonji as one of the last representatives of Sunni thought in Iranian society. The present article is both a critical reading of the views of "Sheikh Khonj" and a critical review of the book. This study is organized in four parts. Criticism of the author's approach to the Safavieh rule, critical study of Khonji's opposition to Shiite political rule and anti-Iranian elements of his views are among the points that are emphasized in the present study. Also, the theory of domination, which is presented as political realism and the reduction of the epistemological position of political thought is one of the challenges that will be sought.

The book “United States of Socialism” by Dinesh D'Souza is written in six chapters focusing on the critique of socialist thinking at the economic and social levels in American society using a neoconservative approach. The author of the book is one of the pro-Trump journalistic elites who sees socialists like Bernie Sanders as the cause of the formation of a maximum government and an obstacle to economic freedom. According to the author of the book, the identity-oriented socialism of Sanders supporters widens the social divide in American society. The most important contextual critiques of the present book can be found in the lack of attention to the inherent crisis of the American capitalist system that has widened the economic and social gaps in American society, as well as superficiality in the critiques of the arguments of American socialists. Reproduction of the status quo leads to summary. D'Souza interprets the social and economic demands of American society in terms of his politicized approach, which is based on superficial analogy. He believes the Democrats' covert administration seeks to negatively influence the political power of Trump and Republicans by directing the identity and economic aspirations of certain sections of society.

The main issue of this article is exploring the nature of imperialism as a fundamental phenomenon in new age which is connected to some subjects such as development, nation-state, bureaucracy, and citizenship. The importance and complexity of this issue led Arendt to analyze and critique its multiple aspects. The purpose of this research is the description, analysis and critique of some basic theoretical and historical dimensions of Arendt’s Imperialism and explanation of some aspects of her innovations and shortcomings. The methodology of Thomas A. Spragens on political theorists is used in this research. The outcome of our quest on Arendt’s treatise is that her central problem as a philosopher has been human beings and the ecology of mankind. She has helped for promotion and accuracy of political literature by finding the distinction between definitions of some concepts. In this way, she has clarified the complexities of her treatise. Although she has criticized the humanitarian aid of developed countries to less-developed states and sees it as imperialist, she has not offered a way out of this complex dilemma. To find the cause and analyses of phenomena of the modern age, such as the anti-Semitism and statelessness that Arendt found in racism, are examples of her innovations as a political theorist.

The contemporary identity of Iranians in relation to their past as well as their interaction with global relations and at the same time its connection with development, has been the subject of various discussions among thinkers. In the book "Thought and Thinking", "Farhang Rajaei" inspired by the "The Law of World Governance Reason" in Letter of Tansar as a theoretical basis and equivalent to the principles of political science in the current world, has addressed reflections of thinkers from Iran and the world. His main concern is the pathology of the current situation governing the intellectual relations of Iranians and providing a way to play an active role in relations between countries so that they can achieve what is called playing in politics. To this end, he uses the past intellectual heritage try to suggest a link between thought and action that serves humanization and, in a sense in a dynamic and, of course, the endless process in which, in his opinion, even the so-called developed world countries are in the middle of that. The present paper, while reflecting on the above work, discusses some of the questions that arise from the author's concerns. However, the author's commendable effort in terms of the possibility of compatibility between the various components of the idea also has some points that will be mentioned.

In global societies whose issues have affected all aspects of private and public life, we are witnessing the spread of populist and specialist processes. On the one hand, we are witnessing growing universalism and homogeneity, and on the other, identity groups in the form of particularism and construct various forms of nationalism and a sense of religious, cultural, ethnic and political belonging. Providing an appropriate response to such a situation becomes even more important when we see the fragmentation of experience, fluidity and constant change, the importance of large financial, technological and media organizations instead of institutions, the end of the age of order, and we are at the beginning of the age of change and the rise of the risk society. Influenced by such a dual situation in which universalism (in the form of common moral-political values) and particularism (the independence of minorities and communities) are confronted with the question of how can we live and interact with each other? is very important. These responses, in the form of reviving the specific practices of the past, creating a world free of time and space constraints and preserving differences, and resorting to a kind of procedural democracy with the aim of accepting the rules of the game, ensuring respect for individual and collective freedoms and the institutionalization of tolerance are presented. The three central positions of the book are the subject, intercultural communication, and democracy. The starting point of the book is the personal subject, the path it takes, the intercultural connection and its goal, democracy. The main purpose of this article is to describe critique and evaluate the book Equality and Difference; can we live together?

The basis of the theory of secularism is that as modernity progresses (a set of phenomena including science, technology, and rational forms of authority), the influence of religion gradually diminishes, but Charles Taylor argues that the modern world not only hasn’t destroyed religion, but also in many cases, has led to its growth and development. The book "The Secular Age" is a detail of his views on secularism. Taylor talks about situations in the past where belief in God was pervasive, but things developed in such a way that belief in God became an option among other options. He describes the process of spreading secularism in the new West and what has happened to religion. In this process, for the religious, "God" and for the non-religious, "reason" describes perfection. This article, with a brief look at Taylor's work, examines the movement of the West (Western Europe and North America) from religious societies to secular societies, and after analyzing Taylor's theory of secularism, critiques and summarizes his ideas.

"Islamic Political Philosophy in West" published by Muhsin Rezvani (at 2014) is the first book written in Persian which is presenting a comprehensive report of contemporary and especially recent western research about Farabi and Islamic political philosophy. This paper through a critical scrutiny reveals a methodological ambivalence in formation of the ideas and organization of the book, in addition to an apolitical reading of political philosophy which cause various problems in categorizing western studies of Islamic political philosophy in four groups of Historical/ Interpretative/ Critical/ Descriptive approaches. Considering the conclusion part of the book, the implicit hidden layer of formation the book seems to be the theological-ideological concern of researcher to give an apology for “Islamic Philosophy” against what he considers as orientalist attacks. This hidden agenda of the book deviates its interpretation of Leo Strauss’s reading of Alfarabi and evaluation of other Western studies of Islamic political philosophy.

A group of professors and philosophers have written a series of articles on the full range of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy, introducing the views of this French phenomenological philosopher, a philosopher who tried to overcome the dichotomies between consciousness and the world as well as consciousness and the body by emphasizing the bodily subject. They aim to acquaint academic and non-university audiences with his ideas. This work, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2005 in the form of a collection of articles entitled “The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-ponty”, was translated by Ms. Hanieh Yaseri and published by Ghognoos Publications in Iran in 2012. In this article, we intended to critically examine the Persian translation of this work. Although the author has chosen a valid book for translation, the existence of many formal and content problems, such as not using uniform terms, non-observance of Persian grammar rules, and many inaccuracies, has made the translation of this work have not worthy of its original text and its content don’t understand properly.

The purpose of this article is to introduce, criticize and evaluate “Spinoza’s in Soviet Philosophy”. This book is composed of seven articles of Russian thinkers about various aspects of Spinoza’s philosophy which have been written in 1920s, when the Russian Philosophers sought to reconstruct a philosophical system and there is lot of controversy among them about the nature of this system. Spinoza’s philosophical system was one of the main sources for them despite the opposite approach to this reconstruction. In 1952, The American thinker and translator, George L. Kline, with complete knowledge of the Russian and Spinoza’s Philosophy, chose and translated these articles from the different Journals of that period and published them with a detailed introduction. In this article, first, we present a general introduction of the work and its origins, then we introduce the content of each article independently and finally analyze, evaluate and criticize the various approaches.

In this book “Plato: Deconstruction of a Philosophical Myth”, Shervin Vakili tries to show that the portrait of Plato drawn by the so-called scholars of Plato (both western and Iranian) is verily unreal. In nine sections of this book, Vakili completes a portrait of Plato which lacks ethical and Political vices; a person who learned everything from Persians and turned everywhere against them. Vakili’s Plato is a stony aristocrat, an ambitious treacherous, and deviator of the Persian theoretical and practical teachings. Vakili introduces very historical pieces of evidence from Greek-Persian relations to validate his portrait, but after reading his book, it is not hard to say that he lacks a comprehensive, original, and deep understanding of Plato’s teachings. Most of his comments and analyses are unscholarly, and some are notoriously mistaken. Some critical points have been said here, about this amassed book.