scholarly journals Henry Corbin’s Oriental Philosophy and Iranian Nativist Ideologies

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 997
Author(s):  
Ahmad Bostani

This paper aims to explore the roots of the nativist discourse among Iranian intellectuals in the 20th century prior to the Islamic Revolution, a discourse based on Eastern authenticity and the felt need for a return to Islamic, Persian, or Asian traditions. This general tendency took various forms among anti- and even pro-regime intellectuals, including severe anti-modernist evaluations of Al-e-Ahmad, Hossein Nasr, Ahmad Fardid, and Ehsan Naraqi. This nativist movement, as some scholars have shown, played a significant role in the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. This paper aims to discuss some philosophical origins of these East-based and anti-West ideologies in the specific interpretation of Henry Corbin of the East/West spiritual split. This paper demonstrates that these ideas, to a considerable extent, stemmed from Corbin’s “Eastern scheme,” based on the authenticity of spiritual illumination. This paper explores how this Oriental philosophy, rooted in ancient Persia and medieval Iranian wisdom, has been used for political purposes through the ideologization of tradition in contemporary Iran. Therefore, it discusses Corbin’s theological scheme’s political and social ramifications to demonstrate the traces of his scheme in the works of a few nativist intellectuals in an ideologized form.

2004 ◽  
pp. 142-157
Author(s):  
M. Voeikov ◽  
S. Dzarasov

The paper written in the light of 125th birth anniversary of L. Trotsky analyzes the life and ideas of one of the most prominent figures in the Russian history of the 20th century. He was one of the leaders of the Russian revolution in its Bolshevik period, worked with V. Lenin and played a significant role in the Civil War. Rejected by the party bureaucracy L. Trotsky led uncompromising struggle against Stalinism, defending his own understanding of the revolutionary ideals. The authors try to explain these events in historical perspective, avoiding biases of both Stalinism and anticommunism.


Author(s):  
Kleanthis Kyriakidis

In the Arabian Gulf two identities can be really considered almost as important as the national one: the tribal and the sectarian ones. Someone should expect that the reinforcement of these identities is a direct response to inequality and processes of exclusion. Furthermore, parochial tribalism is expected to arise as the protector of cultural heritage, especially in a region where the ex-pats vastly outnumber the locals. Nonetheless, both statements are far from truth. In this paper we will analyze how in the Gulf, sectarian identity came to play a significant role only after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and it keeps on surviving through mainly instigations and Iranian propaganda, provocations and support. It should be noted that Sunni identity has been allegedly subjugated in other Middle East States (mainly in Syria and Iraq) but in the Gulf the sectarian challenge stems from the Shia communities, openly supported by Tehran. Strangely enough, the tribal identity does not pose that much of a challenge, since tribes are more the friend than the enemy of all Gulf States. Actually, these countries could not have survived without the loyalty and commitment of the tribes not only to the Royal families but also to the idea of the State and the ideal of the Nation – and Gulf Nations do protect their cultural heritage. Keywords: Gulf, Globalization, Fragmentation, Sectarianism, Tribalism


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1133-1167 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sanchez-Lorenzo ◽  
J. Calbó ◽  
M. Wild

Abstract. Visual observations of clouds have been performed since the establishment of meteorological observatories during the early instrumental period, and have become more systematic and reliable after the mid-19th century due to the establishment of the first national weather services. During the last decades a large number of studies have documented the trends of the total cloud cover (TCC) and cloudy types; most of these studies are focused on the trends since the second half of the 20th century. Due to the lower reliability of former observations, and the fact that most of this data is not accessible in digital format, there is a lack of studies focusing on the trends of cloudiness since the mid-19th century. In the first part, this work attempts to review the previous studies analyzing TCC changes with information covering at least the first half of the 20th century. Then, the study analyses a database of cloudiness observations in Southern Europe (Spain) since the second third of the 19th century. Specifically, monthly TCC series were reconstructed since 1866 by means of a so-called parameter of cloudiness, calculated from the number of cloudless and overcast days. This estimated TCC series show a high interannual and decadal correlation with the observed TCC series originally measured in oktas. After assessing the temporal homogeneity of the estimated TCC series, the mean annual and seasonal series for the whole of Spain and several subregions were calculated. The mean annual TCC shows a general tendency to increase from the beginning of the series until the 1960s; at this point, the trend becomes negative. The linear trend for the annual mean series, estimated over the 1866–2010 period, is a highly remarkable (and statistically significant) increase of +0.44% per decade, which implies an overall increase of more than +6% during the analyzed period. These results are in line with the major part of the previous trends observed at many areas of the World, especially for the records before the 1950s, when a widespread increase of TCC can been considered as a common feature.


2005 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Esther Hertzog

Women's parties have played a significant role on the Israeli political scene since the beginning of the 20th century until the present. Moreover, women's parties had far reaching impact on both the status of women and wider society. However, the significance of women's parties has been underrated by academia and the media, and their potential prospects have been continuously denied. Women's antagonistic attitudes towards women's parties are in particular conspicuous. The article describes and analyzes this phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Marek Tesar ◽  
Andrew Gibbons ◽  
Sonja Arndt ◽  
Nina Hood

The period of postmodernism refers to a diverse set of ideas, practices, and disciplines that came to prominence in the later 20th century. It is the overarching philosophical project that responds to and critiques the principles of modernity and challenges the established ways of thinking. It opposes the ideas that it is possible to rationalize life through narrow, singular disciplinary thinking or through the establishment of a universal truth and grand narratives that strive for the value-neutral homogeneity that defined Enlightenment thinking. Postmodernism questions ontological, epistemological, and ethical conventions, and it opens up possibilities for multiple discourses and accepting marginalized and minority thoughts and practices. Openness to diversity is a key outcome of the multiplicities arising in postmodernity across a range of fields, including, among others, art, education, philosophy, architecture, and economics. Through its rejection of the totalizing effects of metanarratives and their intentions to achieve universal truths, goals, outcomes, and sameness, the postmodern condition opens an ethical responsibility toward otherness, to allow for diversity, and thus to elevate those who have been subjugated or marginalized in modernity. Postmodernism has been playing a significant role in what sometimes is termed the equity approach in education. While postmodernism may be eventually overtaken by other “posts”—post-qualitative, post-truth, post-digital—it still remains an important part of philosophy of education scholarship and broader understandings and conceptualizations of education.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1199-1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sanchez-Lorenzo ◽  
J. Calbó ◽  
M. Wild

Abstract. Visual observations of clouds have been performed since the establishment of meteorological observatories during the early instrumental period, and have become more systematic and reliable after the mid-19th century due to the establishment of the first national weather services. During the last decades a large number of studies have documented the trends of the total cloud cover (TCC) and cloudy types; most of these studies focus on the trends since the second half of the 20th century. Due to the lower reliability of former observations, and the fact that most of this data is not accessible in digital format, there is a lack of studies focusing on the trends of cloudiness since the mid-19th century. In the first part, this work attempts to review previous studies analyzing TCC changes with information covering at least the first half of the 20th century. Then, the study analyses a database of cloudiness observations in Southern Europe (Spain) since the second half of the 19th century. Specifically, monthly TCC series were reconstructed since 1866 by means of a so-called parameter of cloudiness, calculated from the number of cloudless and overcast days. These estimated TCC series show a high interannual and decadal correlation with the observed TCC series originally measured in oktas. After assessing the temporal homogeneity of the estimated TCC series, the mean annual and seasonal series for the whole of Spain and several subregions were calculated. The mean annual TCC shows a general tendency to increase from the beginning of the series until the 1960s; at this point, the trend becomes negative. The linear trend for the annual mean series, estimated over the 1866–2010 period, is a highly remarkable (and statistically significant) increase of +0.44% per decade, which implies an overall increase of more than +6% during the analyzed period. These results are in line with the majority of the trends observed in many areas of the world in previous studies, especially for the records before the 1950s when a widespread increase of TCC can been considered as a common feature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (11) ◽  
pp. 1202-1217
Author(s):  
Gürsel Sunal ◽  
Mehmet Korhan Erturaç ◽  
Pınar Gutsuz ◽  
István Dunkl ◽  
Ziyadin Cakir

The Almacık Block is an approximately 73 km long and 21 km wide tectonic sliver formed by the North Anatolian Fault Zone in northwestern Turkey. Morphologically, it is one of the most pronounced structures along the North Anatolian Fault Zone. All the segments bounding the Almacık Block were ruptured during the second half of the 20th century. The fifty-four apatite (U–Th)/He ages we obtained showed that the region including the Almacık Block was exhumed during the Oligo–Miocene interval and then original exhumation pattern was distorted by the North Anatolian Fault Zone during the Miocene to recent. To interpret this distortion and to reconstruct it to the original state, we modelled “Λ”-shaped mountain fronts in the most probable deformation scenarios. The block has been tilted southward about an approximately east–west-trending horizontal (slightly dipping to the east) axis. As a result of this rotation, the northern part of the block has been uplifted about 2800 m, whereas the southern part has subsided about 430 m, likely during the last 2.5 Myr. The exhumation in the studied region started at around 34 Ma and lasted until 16 Ma with a mean exhumation rate of about 60 m/Myr.


Author(s):  
Sanaz Fotouhi

Middle Eastern Muslim men have been historically subjected to stereotypical representations in the West. Although these men are categorically hypervisible for Western audiences as a similar type, among them Iranian men in particular, have been subject to a specific kind of marginalization. Following the 1979 Islamic revolution and the American hostage crisis in Iran, Iranian men and masculinity have become hypervisible as violent and religiously fanatic. While Western discourses of representation contributed greatly to the construction and representation of this specific kind of masculinity which marginalized and stigmatized Iranian men, Iranians themselves, have played a significant role in reaffirming this view. Ironically, contributing most to the reinforcement of this discourse has been Iranian women’s narratives in English in the West, in the form of memoirs and fictional accounts. These popular accounts have played a significant part in marginalizing and emphasizing a hypervisible and stereotypical representation of Iranian men. This paper considers the representation of Iranian men and masculinity as presented through Iranian women’s narratives in the West in English. By drawing on specific narratives and accounts, it examines how socio-political and historical contexts both in the West and in Iran, have led to Iranian women’s representation of Iranian men hypervisibly. Then, through an examination of some narratives by Iranian men, this paper examines how such representations have led to emphasizing the discourse of exclusion and otherness of Iranian men in the West, hampering the actual smooth integration of diasporic Iranian men into their adopted homes.


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