فصلنامه اندیشه سیاسی اسلام
پیاپی 3 (پاییز 1389)

Most writings on Orientalism and differentiating the Orient from the Occident are based on the contrast among the others. Therefore, for any identification, a relationship of otherness should be established among the others. The question this paper raises is, how we can consider the other as “the other self” not identity other? Using Michael Walzer’s three methods of discovery, innovation and interpretation for studying ethics, the positions of the cognition of the others are analyzed. Although in the process of identification we have to see the differences between self and the other, we should note that in “the other self”, we need to pay attention to similarities prior to differences. This necessitates social criticism, in which we and the others keep the critical distance, and we neither dissolve in each other, nor stand in contrast to each other. In social criticism, unlike Orientalism, the cognition or criticism of a society or culture is not wholly based on external standard; neither is it based on defying all the common standards, as it said in some anti-Occidental trends in the Orient. The two issues of keeping the critical distance and not adopting wholly external standards cause the inequality between the critic and the subject of criticism to reduce. leading these two points undermines the role of power in social criticism. Therefore, in the cognition of other which is based on social criticism the Orient and the Occident play no role, and the other self gains importance, which is similar to us in may ways. Also, our criteria are not the only one in assessing its differences. The importance f power is undermined in this method of cognition and criticism, as well. This way of dealing with the other can be called otherism.

important eras in recent Iranian history, entered the field of politics diligently to increase the power of the Shiite. He was so influential that Shah postponed some of his plans, including land reforms, because of his opposition; Shah did not put his plan for land reforms into action until his death. Because of his experiences in the Constitutional Revolution, he preferred make deliberate attempts at political actions and emphasized that “I will make no attempts at things that I do not know about their beginnings and ends, and cannot make any predictions about them”. Therefore, while he never abandoned politics, he devoted most of his time to cultural activities. Some of the non-Islamic actions that he made great attempts at preventing them are as follows: the promotion of fire worship, the marching of women with non-Islamic clothes, dissuasion of women from wearing Islamic veil, the changing of the official religion and system of writing, freedom for the followers of Bahayiat and the execution of Ayatollah Kashani, which will be studied in this article. Also, his influence on nationalizing of oil and his relationship with Fadaiyan e Islam will be discussed.

Realists have interpreted the Euro-American debates on climate change policies simply as hegemonic competition and challenge. According to them the US regards multi-lateral development as unnecessary, because the US believes that by taking a unilateral decision it can be imposed on others in a hegemonic way. This article shows how Europe has asserted its leadership in this regard; however the US can have recourse to its crude oil supplies and its right of veto. The main question here is, can a solely realistic view help us explain the hegemony of the US in the leadership of climate change diplomacy? This article argues that the pressure of the US on Europe cannot make the Euro-American diplomatic maneuver take a different direction. In fact, from a liberalistic viewpoint, especially the “mutual dependence” theory, we can claim that the European Union can play its trump cards to figure prominently in developing climate change policies.

The necessity of theologizing politics in new forms has made the religiously committed thinkers publish influential political writings. Well-known theologians have tried to change autocratic rule to constitutional rule through uncovering the consistency of the theoretical bases of religion and Shiite jurisprudence with constitutional law, open political debates and justice. In this article the political thought of leading authorities on jurisprudence and Islam are studied, and their political ideas are analyzed.

The Iranian revolution was so rapid and surprising that almost all political observers, journalists, diplomat and even prominent thinkers and theoreticians of revolution were amazed. The rapidity of this event – toppling a regime which considered itself the fifth greatest nonatomic power of the world – and lack of a theoretical framework for analyzing it, paved the way for the emergence of a generation of theoreticians. This revolution occurred so astonishingly that it refuted most western theories; some thinkers called it “a revolution for all theories”, and some others, as western writers justified, changes and mixed their theories, hastily calledit “darning theories”. By mixing some old theories, John Furan cited five important reasons for revolution, a successful combination of which leads to its success: dependent development, oppressive government, the formation of resistance political culture, sudden economic recession and close relationship with the world. Although this theory seems well-founded, because of the nature of the Islamic Revolution, it cannot be true about this revolution.

Reflections on the nature and importance of community have played a great role in the philosophy of ethics and political philosophy of the west. The conservatives and socialists believe that innate relationships, as the bases of community’s permanence, give more important role to community than the worries and interests of each individual. However, the liberals base community on the assemblies of individuals, who are selected freely and have common needs, and the freely selected communities and individual needs. “Communitariansim” is one of the most important approaches in philosophy and social sciences, which emerged after postmodernism, and its attitudes, especially towards ethics and justice, which are among the key concepts of philosophy and modern social sciences, are of great importance to the philosophy and social sciences of the west. Communitarianism can be defined as supporting the social order in which individuals depend on each other, based on their common values. While communitarianists emphasize the interaction between the framework of community and elf-consciousness of individuals, liberalists apparently study a single individual who is detached from its social environment artificially and inharmoniously. This article analyzes communitarinasm as a new criticism of liberalism.

This article aims to study uncover the status of language in the political philosophy of Wittgenstein. Among the main subject of political philosophy. It is the concept of power. In recent years this concept has developed philosophical aspects. This article demonstrates that in order to understand the concept of power we need to study language which is the main component of philosophical thought in modern times. In the framework of analytical philosophy language is regarded as the main factor of philosophy. Therefore, one of the basic factors of the new attitude about power is the change in the political thought of present time. The writer of this article tries to study the status of language and linguistic turn in the former and late Wittgenstein’s thought through analyzing these changes.