The ‘mystical’ and the ‘modern’: Mutual entanglement and multiple interactions

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-545
Author(s):  
Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh

‘Mysticism’ and ‘modernity’, two constructs that emerged in the West during the post-medieval era, were created partly in opposition to each other. What were regarded as ‘mystical traditions’ were seen, by several influential thinkers of ‘modern’ discourses, as a phenomenon of the medieval era and the antithesis of rationality, and those traditions were employed by ‘counterculture’ currents in their critique of the modern world. This article problematizes and nuances the relationship between the mystical and the modern and highlights various aspects of their reciprocity, entanglement and harmony. It argues that the reconstruction of mystical traditions as ‘mystic-ism’, which started in the 17th century, resulted in the rejuvenation of those facets of such traditions that were harmonious with modern discourses along with the adoption of modern elements into the concept of mysticism. Therefore, the mystical and the modern enjoy a hybrid relation of ‘integrejection’ rather than a simple connection of exclusion.

Author(s):  
Egnara Vartanyan

Introduction. The article deals with the problem of studying the ethics and values of Iran in the period from the late 20th to the early 21st centuries in the context of “cultural heritage” and “dialogue of civilizations” concepts. Methods. The historical-typological and historical-systematic methods, the civilization approach used in the article have allowed to analyze the typology and transformation of the Iranian culture in the period from the late 20th to the early 21st centuries. Analysis. The specific historical characteristics of the Iranian civilization are the continuity of development and the civilization openness, which can be explained not only by invasions of other civilizations, but also by the active perception of the intellectual culture achievements of other peoples. The Iranian civilization came into contact with other civilizations, its origin and functioning were caused by the dialogue of cultures in a broad sense of this word. The psychological reorganization of the Iranians arose as a reaction to the introduction of western values in the life of the country during the shah modernization of the 1960s – 1970s, which led to forming new features in the national consciousness of the Iranians: the aspiration to revive national cultural traditions, desire not so much “to catch up with the West”, as to approve the priority of its culture in peoples consciousness. Those years the Iranian social thought was devoted to the intensive development of the concept of historical and cultural identity of the country, problems of the relationship between the West and the East. In the Iranian social thought the certain independent area of knowledge, namely “cultural heritage”, was formed, which gave the way to the national consciousness and encouraged the scientific search of a rational model of countrys development, looking for the reliance in the traditional experience. Results. The author draws the conclusion that the interpenetration and mutual enrichment of people, cultures, civilizations are important, especially in the era of globalization. But this process is the most valuable in the context of the development of national cultures, respect for the cultural heritage of every nation i.e. maintaining cultural diversity of the modern world. Today modernization of Iran is connected with the civilization principles of development (“dialogue of civilizations”) in combination with preservation of cultural heritage.


2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-72
Author(s):  
Morteza Karimi-Nia

The status of tafsīr and Qur'anic studies in the Islamic Republic of Iran has changed significantly during recent decades. The essay provides an overview of the state of Qur'anic studies in Iran today, aiming to examine the extent of the impact of studies by Western scholars on Iranian academic circles during the last three decades and the relationship between them. As in most Islamic countries, the major bulk of academic activity in Iran in this field used to be undertaken by the traditional ʿulamāʾ; however, since the beginning of the twentieth century and the establishment of universities and other academic institutions in the Islamic world, there has been increasing diversity and development. After the Islamic Revolution, many gradual changes in the structure and approach of centres of religious learning and universities have occurred. Contemporary advancements in modern sciences and communications technologies have gradually brought the institutions engaged in the study of human sciences to confront the new context. As a result, the traditional Shīʿī centres of learning, which until 50 years ago devoted themselves exclusively to the study of Islamic law and jurisprudence, today pay attention to the teaching of foreign languages, Qur'anic sciences and exegesis, including Western studies about the Qur'an, to a certain extent, and recognise the importance of almost all of the human sciences of the West.


1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moh. Salman Hamdani

This paper aims to provide explanation about John Louis Esposito’s insights on therelationship between Islam and The West. The relationship is a fluctuative one, some tensionsand even open conflict may occur. Some events become the entry point to the relationship, forinstance, the crusades that is not only happened physically but also, through this war, the meetingbetween Islam and The West establishes inter cultural dialogue among them.John Louis Esposito’s views on the relationship between Islam and The West ispositioned in view of some Muslim intellectuals and orientalists to emphasize its originality. Theintellectual positions do not put it on pros or cons side in the context of the relationship betweenIslam and The West.Historically, the relationship between Islam and The West actually has a theologicallystrong bond that there is common ground and similarities between Islam and The West. Islamand The west are inherited with Jewish and Christian traditions. Islam like Christianity andJudaism are religions ‘of the sky’ that are allied in Abrahamic religions. Therefore, according toJohn L. Esposito, based on historical fact, there were a real strong bond between Islam and theWest and it started centuries ago .


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-236
Author(s):  
Martin Braxatoris ◽  
Michal Ondrejčík

Abstract The paper proposes a basis of theory with the aim of clarifying the casual nature of the relationship between the West Slavic and non-West Slavic Proto-Slavic base of the Slovak language. The paper links the absolute chronology of the Proto-Slavic language changes to historical and archaeological information about Slavs and Avars. The theory connects the ancient West Slavic core of the Proto-Slavic base of the Slovak language with Sclaveni, and non-West Slavic core with Antes, which are connected to the later population in the middle Danube region. It presumes emergence and further expansion of the Slavic koiné, originally based on the non-West Slavic dialects, with subsequent influence on language of the western Slavic tribes settled in the north edge of the Avar Khaganate. The paper also contains a periodization of particular language changes related to the situation in the Khaganate of that time.


Author(s):  
Oleksii Chepov ◽  

The qualitative and clear definition of the legal regime of the capital of Ukraine, the hero city of Kyiv, is influenced by its legislative enshrinement, however, it should be noted that discussions are ongoing and one of the reasons for the unclear legal status of the capital is the ambiguity of current legislation in this area. Separation of the functions of the city of Kyiv, which are carried out to ensure the rights of citizens of Ukraine and the functions that guarantee the rights of the territorial community of the city of Kyiv. In the modern world, in legal doctrine and practice, the capital is understood as the capital of the country, which at the legislative level received this status and, accordingly, is the administrative and political center of the state, which houses the main state bodies and diplomatic missions of other states. It is the identification of the boundaries of the relationship between the competencies of state administrations and local self-government, in practice, often raises questions about their delimitation and ways of regulatory solution. Peculiarities of local self-government in Kyiv city districts are defined in the provisions of the Law on the Capital, which reveal the norms of the Constitution in these legal relations, according to which the issue of organizing district management in cities belongs to city councils. Likewise, it is unregulated by law to lose the particularity of the legal status of the territory of the city. It should be emphasized that the subject of administrative-legal relations is not a certain administrative-territorial entity, but the social group is designated - the territorial community of the city of Kiev, kiyani. Thus, the provisions on the city of Kyiv partially ignore the potential of the territorial community.


1969 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-342
Author(s):  
G. C. Hufbauer ◽  
Nayyara Aziz ◽  
Asghar Ali

The senior author has elsewhere argued [8] that foreign exchange earned by the export of West Pakistan-manufactured goods has a high domestic cost. Much the same contention has been advanced by Hecox [7], Islam [9] and MacEwan [11]. In these papers the relationship between costs and earnings is usually based on fairly abstract assumptions. The purpose of this note is to reduce the calculations to a "plain man" level. Specifically, we try to calculate how many rupees of indigenous resources are expended to earn each extra rupee of foreign exchange which is received from exporting cotton textiles and leather goods rather than their primary ingredients, namely raw cotton and hides and skins i. Since this note was written, the Board of Economic Inquiry, Lahore, at the request of the West Pakistan Planning and Development Department, has undertaken a wider study applying the same general approach used here.


2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Cooper

Without help from the west, the small East German opposition,such as it was, never would have achieved as much as it did. Themoney, moral support, media attention, and protection provided bywestern supporters may have made as much of a difference to theopposition as West German financial support made to the East Germanstate. Yet this help was often resented and rarely acknowledgedby eastern activists. Between 1988 and 1990, I worked withArche, an environmental network created in 1988 by East Germandissidents. During that time, the assistance provided by West Germans,émigré East Germans, and foreigners met with a level of distrustthat cannot entirely be blamed on secret police intrigue.Outsiders who tried to help faced a barrage of allegations and criticismof their work and motives. Dissidents who elected to remain inEast Germany distrusted those who emigrated, and vice versa,reflecting an unfortunate tendency, even among dissidents, to internalizeelements of East German propaganda. Yet neither the helpand support the East German opposition received from outside northe mentalities that stood in its way have been much discussed. Thisessay offers a description and analysis of the relationship betweenthe opposition and its outside supporters, based largely on one person’sfirst-hand experience.


Author(s):  
Вадим Леонидович Афанасьевский

В статье анализируется проблема взаимоотношений философии права и научной теории права. Рассматриваемая проблема стала особенно актуальной в российском образовательном пространстве в связи с введением после длительного перерыва в государственный образовательный стандарт магистратуры по юриспруденции учебной дисциплины «Философия права». Автор статьи в качестве базисного принимает тезис, согласно которому философия права, являясь сферой философской мысли, и теория права как область научного социогуманитарного знания представляют собой разные типы теоретического дискурса. Исходя из этого, в статье выстраивается теоретическая концепция, согласно которой задачей философии права как философского типа мышления является конструирование или экспликация онтологических, эпистемологических, аксиологических, феноменологических оснований для формирования и функционирования научных теоретико-правовых и историко-правовых построений. Для реализации поставленной в статье задачи подробно рассматриваются ключевые характеристики как теории философского типа, так и идеалов, норм и характеристик научного знания. Выявленное различие экстраполируется на взаимоотношение теории права как продукта научного творчества и философии права как конструкции, задающей базовые мировоззренческие смыслы. В качестве примера выработанных философией права и государства оснований научных теорий прогресса, государства, морали и права, автор приводит взгляды мыслителей западноевропейской философской классики: Т. Гоббса, Ж.-Ж. Руссо, И. Канта, Г.В.Ф. Гегеля. Именно их философские концепции предопределили образы теоретико- и историко-правовых учений XVIII, XIX, XX и даже начала XXI в. Таким образом, отношение философии права и теории права выстраивается по «вертикали»: от онтологического основания к возведению теоретико-правовых и историко-правовых научных построений. The article analyzes the problem of the relationship between the philosophy of law and the scientific theory of law. The problem under consideration has become especially urgent in the Russian educational space in connection with the introduction of the Philosophy of Law discipline master's degree in law after a long break. The author of the article takes as the basis the thesis that the philosophy of law, being the sphere of philosophical thought, and the theory of law as a field of scientific socio-humanitarian knowledge are different types of theoretical discourse. Based on this, the article builds a theoretical concept according to which the task of the philosophy of law as a philosophical type of thinking is the construction or explication of ontological, epistemological, axiological, phenomenological grounds for the formation and functioning of concrete scientific theoretical and legal and historical and legal constructions. To implement the task posed in the article, the key characteristics of both a theory of a philosophical type and ideals, norms and characteristics of scientific knowledge are examined in detail. The revealed difference is extrapolated to the relationship between the theory of law as a product of scientific creativity and the philosophy of law as a construction that sets basic philosophical meanings. As an example of the foundations of the scientific theories of progress, state, morality and law developed by the philosophy of law and the state, the author gives the views and thinkers of the West European philosophical classics T. Hobbes, J.-J. Russo, I. Kant, G.V.F. Hegel. It was their philosophical concepts that predetermined the images of theoretical and historical-legal doctrines of the XVIII, XIX, XX and even the beginning of the XXI centuries. Thus, the attitude of the philosophy of law and the theory of law is built along the «vertical»: from the ontological foundation to the construction of theoretical and historical and historical legal scientific constructions.


Author(s):  
Paul J. Bolt ◽  
Sharyl N. Cross

The Conclusion reviews the volume’s major themes. Russia and China have common interests that cement their partnership, and are key players in shaping the international order. Both seek better relations with the West, but on the basis of “mutual respect” and “equality.” While the relationship has grown deeper, particularly since 2014, China and Russia are partners but not allies. Thus, their relationship is marked by burgeoning cooperation, but still areas of potential competition and friction. Russia in particular must deal with China’s growing relative power at the same time that it is isolated from the West. While the Russian–Chinese relationship creates challenges for the United States and Europe and a return of major power rivalry, there is also room for cooperation in the strategic triangle comprising China, Russia, and the West. Looking ahead, the world is in a period of dramatic transition.


Author(s):  
David Willetts

Universities have a crucial role in the modern world. In England, entrance to universities is by nation-wide competition which means English universities have an exceptional influence on schools--a striking theme of the book. This important book first investigates the university as an institution and then tracks the individual on their journey to and through university. In A University Education, David Willetts presents a compelling case for the ongoing importance of the university, both as one of the great institutions of modern society and as a transformational experience for the individual. The book also makes illuminating comparisons with higher education in other countries, especially the US and Germany. Drawing on his experience as UK Minister for Universities and Science from 2010 to 2014, the author offers a powerful account of the value of higher education and the case for more expansion. He covers controversial issues in which he was involved from access for disadvantaged students to the introduction of L9,000 fees. The final section addresses some of the big questions for the future, such as the the relationship between universities and business, especially in promoting innovation.. He argues that the two great contemporary trends of globalisation and technological innovation will both change the university significantly. This is an authoritative account of English universities setting them for the first time in their new legal and regulatory framework.


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