scholarly journals Interplay of Religion and Philosophy in al-Tawḥīdī’s Political Thought and Practical Ethics

2022 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 313-337
Author(s):  
Nuha Alshaar

Although modern scholars tend to be sceptical of the role of religion in the formation of ethical and political thought in the Būyid period (334/945–440/1048), this article argues that both philosophy and religion, as envisioned by al-Tawḥīdī and his contemporaries, played an integral role in its creation. The analysis shows that modern concepts such as ‘humanism’ and ‘political philosophy,’ as applied to these authors and their texts, are not felicitous to the social and intellectual contexts in which they were produced. Through analysing al-Tawḥīdī’s ethical and political thought, certain modern assumed dichotomies, including scientific enquiry versus religious teaching, theoretical ethics versus practical ethics, and the social versus the personal, are reconsidered. The article argues that a contextual approach to al-Tawḥīdī and his peers should consider the encyclopaedic system of knowledge that shaped their thought and the interdisciplinary nature of their work where religious, philosophical, and literary elements are intertwined. The article highlights al-Tawḥīdī’s political thought, his active role as an intellectual and his attempt to disseminate knowledge based on two main beliefs: the role of knowledge linked to action in social life and reform, and a solid sense of the religious and moral responsibility of the scholar to offer advice to the leaders of the community. The concepts that he uses, such as maḥabba (love) and ṣadāqa (friendship) with its four foundational components, namely the soul (nafs), intellect (ʿaql), nature (ṭabīʿa), and morals (khulq), addressed social and political challenges in Būyid society and produced alternative moral and intellectual responses to sectarianism, social disintegration and the decline in morality, which were characteristic of the Būyid era. Keywords: Ethical political thought, Būyid, Humanism, Political philosophy, ʿIlm (Knowledge), ʿAmal (action), Ṣadāqa (friendship), al-Tawḥīdī, Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
Yahya Yahya

The role of Arabic-Indonesian community in Islamic da 'wah in Indonesia is quite important. However, there are few studies of their role that have been conducted It is for this reason that the writer would like to observe the role and the existence of this community from the social-historical perspective. There are two theories in understanding their relationship with indigenous people. The first is identical theory which perceives that historically Islam is identical with Arab and therefore cannot be separated from Arabic people. The second theory is that the arrival and the development of Arabic community in Indonesia, on the perspective of anthropological history, is closely related to the history of conversion to Islam and the development of Islam in society. The writer tries to observe their social life and their active role in the development of Indonesian society.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-103
Author(s):  
Nurul Fatmawati ◽  
Afrizal Nur ◽  
Saidul Amin

The qur’an contains the laws, commandments and prohibitions of Allah, giving glad tidings and al-qur’an has explained the problems of human life from all fields, including all forms of women’s problems. It is based on Qur’an surah al-ahzab: 33. But the verse is less precise is used as an excuse to limit women’s gait in social activities outside the home. The article al-qur’an does not forbit women to work out of the house, even al-qur’an imposes responsibility on men and women to guide and improve society. This is expressed in the word of Allah surah at-tawba: 71. As al-Qur’an has explained how women play a social role, there is also one movement of women who also focus on women’s problems, namely ‘Aisyiyah. ‘Aisyiyah is one of the muslimah mevement under the leadership of of indonesia. Then the problem studied in this thesis is how social role the of women contained in al-qur’an and how also according to aisyiyah which is limited by discussing five surah in al-Qur’an that is surah al-Imran: 159, an-Nisa’: 124, an-Nahl: 97, ghafir: 40, at-taubah: 71.The type of research that the writer use is literature research with the title method (by collecting verses related to the social role of women) then peeled in deeply and thoroughly from various aspects related and analyzed with descriptive approach to explain the sosial role of women according to al-qur’an and according to aisyiyah. After being reviewed and studied, the author gets the answer that al-qur’an has explained that women can play an active role social life. Similarly aisyiyah also explained that women can still play an active role in social life as long as he does not forget his nature as a woman. There is no controversy in in these two perspectives.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Laura Hall ◽  
Urpi Pine ◽  
Tanya Shute

Abstract This paper will reflect on key findings from a Summer 2017 initiative entitled The Role of Culture and Land-Based Healing in Addressing and Ending Violence against Indigenous Women and Two-Spirited People. The Indigenist and decolonizing methodological approach of this work ensured that all research was grounded in experiential and reciprocal ways of learning. Two major findings guide the next phase of this research, complicating the premise that traditional economic activities are healing for Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people. First, the complexities of the mainstream labour force were raised numerous times. Traditional economies are pressured in ongoing ways through exploitative labour practices. Secondly, participants emphasized the importance of attending to the responsibility of nurturing, enriching, and sustaining the wellbeing of soil, water, and original seeds in the process of creating renewal gardens as a healing endeavour. In other words, we have an active role to play in healing the environment and not merely using the environment to heal ourselves. Gardening as research and embodied knowledge was stressed by extreme weather changes including hail in June, 2018, which meant that participants spent as much time talking about the healing of the earth and her systems as the healing of Indigenous women in a context of ongoing colonialism.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147488512110020
Author(s):  
Alexandra Oprea

Ryan Patrick Hanley makes two original claims about François Fénelon: (1) that he is best regarded as a political philosopher, and (2) that his political philosophy is best understood as “moderate and modern.” In what follows, I raise two concerns about Hanley’s revisionist turn. First, I argue that the role of philosophy in Fénelon’s account is rather as a handmaiden of theology than as an autonomous area of inquiry—with implications for both the theory and practice of politics. Second, I use Fénelon’s writings on the education of women as an illustration of the more radical and reactionary aspects of his thought. Despite these limits, the book makes a compelling case for recovering Fénelon and opens up new conversations about education, religion, political economy, and international relations in early modern political thought.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-196
Author(s):  
Maja Dorota Wojciechowska

PurposeSocial capital, understood as intangible community values available through a network of connections, is a factor in the development of societies and improving quality of life. It helps to remove economic inequalities and prevent poverty and social exclusion, stimulate social and regional development, civic attitudes and social engagement and build a civic society as well as local and regional identity. Many of these tasks may be implemented by libraries, which, apart from providing access to information, may also offer a number of services associated with social needs. The purpose of this paper is to present the roles and functions that libraries may serve in local communities in terms of assistance, integration and development based on classical social capital theories.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the classical concepts of social capital in the context of libraries. It analyses the findings of Pierre-Félix Bourdieu, James Coleman, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Putnam, Nan Lin, Ronald Stuart Burt, Wayne Baker and Alejandro Portes. Based on their respective concepts, the paper analyses the role of the contemporary library in the social life of local communities. In particular, it focuses on the possible new functions that public libraries may serve.FindingsA critical review of the concept of social capital revealed certain dependencies between libraries and their neighbourhoods. With new services that respond to the actual social needs, libraries may serve as a keystone, namely they may integrate, animate and engage local communities. This, however, requires a certain approach to be adopted by the personnel and governing authorities as well as infrastructure and tangible resources.Originality/valueThe social engagement of libraries is usually described from the practical perspective (reports on the services provided) or in the context of research on the impact of respective projects on specific groups of users (research reports). A broader approach, based on original social theories, is rarely encountered. The paper draws on classical concepts of social capital and is a contribution to the discussion on possible uses of those concepts based on an analysis of the role of libraries in social life and in strengthening the social capital of local communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-167
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Sokół

The subject of this essay is Andrzej Waśkiewicz’s book Ludzie – rzeczy – ludzie. O porządkach społecznych, gdzie rzeczy łączą, nie dzielą (People–Things–People: On Social Orders Where Things Connect Rather Than Divide People). The book is the work of a historian of ideas and concerns contemporary searches for alternatives to capitalism: the review presents the book’s overview of visions of society in which the market, property, inequality, or profit do not play significant roles. Such visions reach back to Western utopian social and political thought, from Plato to the nineteenth century. In comparing these ideas with contemporary visions of the world of post-capitalism, the author of the book proposes a general typology of such images. Ultimately, in reference to Simmel, he takes a critical stance toward the proposals, recognizing the exchange of goods to be a fundamental and indispensable element of social life. The author of the review raises two issues that came to mind while reading the book. First, the juxtaposition of texts of a very different nature within the uniform category of “utopia” causes us to question the role and status of reflections regarding the future and of speculative theory in contemporary social thought; second, such a juxtaposition suggests that reflecting on the social “optimal good” requires a much more precise and complex conception of a “thing,” for instance, as is proposed by new materialism or anthropological studies of objects and value as such.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Yusy Widarahesty

The phenomenon of gender gap in Japan has brought many impacts of change in Japan from the declining birth rate and including the emergence of non-profit organizations (NPO) action groups namely "Fathering Japan"(Ikumen) founded by Tatsuya Ando in 2006, which tried to present as a form of resistance ideology from the myth of "Gender Stereotypes" hegemony in Japan.Ando established the NPOto encourage present and future fathers to play a more active role in child-rearing.“The priority of traditional Japanese fathers is work ... they don't know what to do even when they come home early," said Tetsuya Ando. Thus, it is important to study this social and cultural phenomenon to understand the whole structure of Japanese non-traditional security problem that can be seen through the “Fathering Japan” as a new discourse. By using the discourse alternative approach to analyze the role of the social movement of "Fathering Japan" (Ikumen) as the resistance ideology from Japan cultural mythology, the study was conducted by using qualitative methods through the Discourse Analysis by Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe.Keywords: Fathering Japan, discourse, Non Profit Organization, gender gap, JapanAbstrakFenomena kesenjangan gender di Jepang telah membawa banyak dampak perubahan di Jepang dari tingkat kelahiran yang menurun dan termasuk munculnya  Organisasi Non Profit  (NPO) yaitu "Fathering Japan" (Ikumen) yang didirikan oleh Tatsuya Ando pada 2006, yang mencoba menyajikan bentuk ideologi perlawanan dari mitos hegemoni "Gender Stereotypes" di Jepang. Ando mendirikan NPO untuk mendorong ayah hadir di masa depan untuk memainkan peran yang lebih aktif dalam membesarkan anak. "Prioritas ayah tradisional Jepang adalah pekerjaan ... mereka tidak tahu apa yang harus dilakukan bahkan ketika mereka pulang lebih awal," kata Tetsuya Ando.Dengan demikian, penting untuk mempelajari fenomena sosial dan budaya ini untuk memahami keseluruhan struktur masalah keamanan non-tradisional Jepang yang dapat dilihat melalui "Fathering Japan" sebagai diskursus baru. Dengan menggunakan pendekatan diskursus alternatif  untuk menganalisis peran gerakan sosial "Fathering Japan" (Ikumen) sebagai ideologi perlawanan dari mitologi budaya Jepang, penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif melalui Analisis Wacana oleh Ernesto dan Chantal Mouffe .Kata kunci: fathering Jepang, diskursus, NPO, ketimpangan gender, Jepang


Malaysia as a country has grown quite a lot over the last two decades despite the political condition often troubled with allegations of corruption but speaking economically and in social context, it can be claimed that as a country, Malaysia has fared in a decent manner and it has been able to maintain stability which has helped to elevate the progress of the nation. The social structure of Malaysia is in such a manner where there is a broad distribution of multiple ethnicities and cultures that it has been able to maintain but in accordance to the latest Gender Development Index, as till 2017, Malaysia ranks 57th among the 189 countries (http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GDI) and is categorized as a country with “VERY HIGH HUMAN DEVELOPMENT”. The paper makes an attempt to analyze and evaluate the various factors that have direct and indirect implications in acting as factors to influence the presence of “glass ceiling” in the higher education sector with focus on women administration. The objective is to explore and identify the different reasons behind women having to struggle in a country that has such a commendable mark in the HDI where the ones leading are from generally characterized first world countries. The discussion would highlight ways as suggested and put forth by the respondents who have been exposed to “glass ceiling” in various aspects of their career from the different sources and their opinion as to how they were able to overcome and how the upcoming young generation, the women who are aspiring to join the workforce in the coming future can prepare themselves in a manner that would assist them to prepare themselves in ways that the effects and impacts of “glass ceiling” can be reduced and tackled. The role of the components from the society to have an active role in making the effects to be reduced is extremely crucial and has to be dealt with in a manner that can serve the society in the long run.


1996 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Rosen

Though indebted to the social compact for the basic features of his political thought, James Madison found the doctrine inadequate in one essential respect: its failure to provide an account of founding. Of course, this is no simple oversight in liberal political philosophy. It reflects deep misgivings about prudence—especially when understood in its “architechtonic” sense as the height of practical reason—and the inequalities that it implies. Madison addresses this problem in Federalist, Nos. 37–40, his fullest treatment of the activities of the Federal Convention. Here he defends the classical notion of prudence, describing its relationship to the modern science of politics and suggesting how it can be reconciled with modern egalitarian principles.


KWALON ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Müller

Beyond navel-gazing and narcissism.Ferrell’s auto-ethnography as part of ethnography Beyond navel-gazing and narcissism.Ferrell’s auto-ethnography as part of ethnography The labeling of auto-ethnography as navel-gazing does not do justice to the variety with which auto-ethnography is applied. A distinction should be made between emotional and analytical auto-ethnography. In the first form the central person of the researcher plays the central role, in the second auto-ethnography is applied to get a better understanding of the social world which is being studied. In this article the author discusses the second approach by using the work of Jeff Ferrell. Ferrell is a well-known cultural criminologist, who focuses critically on the cultural understanding of social life. By looking at how Ferrell applies auto-ethnography, insight is gained into the added value of this method for qualitative studies: (1) the integration of the personal experiences of researchers in texts in order to achieve a richer description of the social worlds they explore, (2) making explicit the role of the researcher in publications, and (3) developing new (more appealing) forms of representation.


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