Habermas and Iranian Intellectuals

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the impact of Jürgen Habermas' ideas on Iranian intellectuals who live in Iran. The upshot of the paper is that in present day Iran, where the society is going through a significant transitional period, various intellectual groups have reacted differently towards the ideas of the German philosopher-sociologist. While the orthodox left-wing (ex-Marxist) intellectuals and the conservative right-wing writers have, by and large, tended to ignore his views, a younger generation of the left-wing intellectuals and a number of the Muslim intellectuals with left-wing/socialist tendencies, have tried, each in their own ways, to ‘adopt’ Habermas' ideas in pursuit of their own projects/research programs.

Notes

¹Jürgen Habermas, “The Public Role of Religion in Secular Contexts” with a response by Robert Bellah. Lectures presented at UCLA School of Law: Albert Yoon, Northwestern University Law School, 4 March 2005.

²Jürgen Habermas, The Divided West (Cambridge, 2006); Jürgen Habermas, Between Naturalism and Religion (Cambridge, 2005); Jürgen Habermas, Time of Transitions (Cambridge, 2004); Jürgen Habermas, Truth and Justification (Cambridge, 2003); Jürgen Habermas, The Future of the Human Nature (Cambridge, 2002); Jürgen Habermas, The Postcolonial Constellation: Political Essays, trans. Max Pensky (Cambidge, 2001); Jürgen Habermas, The Liberating Power of Symbols: Philosophical Essays (Cambridge, 2001); Jürgen Habermas, The Inclusion of The Other (Cambridge, 1998).

³Some of the most important Persian Translations of the books by/on Habermas are as follows: Jürgen Habermas, “Technology and Science as Ideology” in Habermas 1971, Per. trans. . Nožari. Farhang-e Tous‘h No.5, (1993). Jürgen Habermas, “The University in a Democracy: Democratization of the University,” in Habermas (Boston, 1971b): 1–12, Per. trans. by . Nožari, Rahyāft, no 6 (Teharn 1994). Jürgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis, trans. T. Mac Carty (Boston, 1975), Per. trans. Jahāngir-e Mo‘ini, [Borān-e Mashru‘iyat: Teori-ye Dwolat-e Sarmāye-dāri Modern], (Tehran, 2001). Jürgen Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action Vol. 1. and Vol. 2., trans. Thomas McCarthy (Boston, 1984, 1987), Per. trans. Kamāl Pulādi, [Na˙ zariyeh Konesh-e Ertebāţi] (Tehran, 2005). Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. Thomas Burger (Cambridge, 1989), Per. trans. Jamāl amidi, [Degargoni Sākhtāri ouzeh ‘Omumi], (Tehran, 2005). Robert Holub, Critic in the Public Sphere, Per. trans. . Bashiriyeh, [Naqd dar ouzeh ‘Omomi] (Tehran,1999). Michael Pusey, Jürgen Habermas, (London, 1987), Per. trans. Amad Tadayon, [Jürgen Habermas], (Tehran, 2000). Stephen K.White, The Recent Work of Jürgen Habermas: Reason, Justice and Modernity (Cambridge, 1990), Per. trans. Moammad ariri Akbari, [Neveshte Hāy-e Akhir-e Jürgen Habermas: Kherad, ‘Edālat va Nou Gerāee], (Tehran, 2001).

⁴Among the interviewees, there were two, Mohammad Reźa Nikfar and Shahrokh aqiqi, who live and work outside Iran. We intend to discuss their views, along with the views of some other expatriate Iranian intellectuals, in a separate paper. We have also completed a book in Persian (to be published in 2007) which contains the full text of our interviews with all those intellectuals, both inside and outside Iran, who have kindly accepted our invitation to take part in our project. We would like to thank them for their warm support of the project.

⁵ ossein Adibi and ‘Abdol-M‘abud Anşāri, Na˙ zariye hā-ye Jām‘ce-e Shenāsi [Sociological Theories] (Tehran, 1979).

⁶The authors, who had used English sources for their book, had mispronounced the German letter ‘J’. See ossein and ‘Abdol-M‘abud Anşāri, Na˙ zariye hā-ye Jām‘e-e Shenāsi, 142.

⁷The cited titles are as follows: Toward a Critical Theory (Sic), Knowledge and Human Interest (1971a), and Theory and Practice (1973).

⁸ ossein Adibi and ‘Abdol-M‘abud Anşāri, Na˙ zariye hā-ye Jām‘e-e Shenāsi, 143.

⁹In 2006, following the defeat of the Reform Movement in the Presidential election, Bashiriyeh, predicting a fresh wave of pressure on the academics by the conservatives, decided to leave the country for a sabbatical leave. He is currently based at Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

¹⁰ ossein Bashiriyeh, “Maktab-e Frankfort: Negaresh-e Enteqādi, Naghd-e Āiyn-e Eśbati va Jām‘e-ye Nou” [Frankfurt School: Critical Theory, Criticism of the Positivism and the Modern Society], Siyāsat-e Khāreji [Foreign Policy] 3, no. 4 (1989): 591–613.

¹¹A long interview with Amin Zādeh concerning the way he was influenced by Habermas's views appears in our Persian book on Habermas and Iranian intellectuals. Amin Zādeh was appointed deputy Foreign Minister during President Khātami's government.

¹²See the footnote on Persian translations of books on Habermas above.

¹³Yusuf Abāžari, Kherad-e Jām‘e Shenāsi [Sociological Reason] (Tehran, 1998).

¹⁴Jalāl-e Āl-e Amad (1923–1969). A novelist, social thinker, and a political activist whose views on the role of intellectuals and the causes of backwardness of Third-World countries, the indigenous conditions for development, and his critique of the Western models of modernization were quite influential among the better educated Iranian public in 1960s and 1970s.

¹⁵Ali Sahri‘ati (1933–1977). A Sorbonne-educated sociologist whose project of reconstruction of Islamic thought by using insights from Western systems of thought such as socialism and existentialism was popular and influential amongst the Iranian educated class in the years prior to the Islamic revolution.

¹⁶Şādiq Hedāyat (1902–1950). A leading literary figure who was a pioneer in introducing modern styles of literature to the Iranian public. Despite his relatively short life (he committed suicide in Paris at the age of 48), Hedāyat has had a lasting effect on the generations of Iranian intellectuals. With his romantic outlook, Hedāyat was critical of some aspects of the Islamic tradition and in his writings used to praise Iran's pre-Islamic civilization. He was also critical of the Western civilization in a Kafkaesque manner.

¹⁷M. Horkheimer, and T. Adorno, “The Concept of Enlightenment,” reprinted in Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. John Cumming (London, 1979): 3–32, Per. trans. M. Farhādpur, Aghanoon 3, vol. 21–22 (1996).

¹⁸K. R. Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies (London, 1945).

¹⁹K. R. Popper, Conjectures and Refutations (London, 1963).

²⁰ ossein Nožari, Re-reading Habermas (Tehran, 2002).

²¹Shāhrokh aqiqi, “Bāz-Khāni Na-yandishideh Habermas” [A Thoughtless Re-reading of Habermas] Negāh-e Nou 5, no. 61–62 (May and August 2004).

²²Jürgen Habermas, Communication and the Evolution of Society, trans. Thomas McCarthy (Boston, 1979).

²³Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures, trans. Fredrick Lawrence (Cambridge, 1987).

²⁴Ali Paya, “Karl Popper and Iranian Intellectuals,” Journal of American Islamic Social Sciences 20, no. 2 (2003): 50–79; Ali Paya and Moammad Amin Ghaneirad, “The Philosopher and the Revolutionary State: How Karl Popper's Ideas Shaped the Views of Iranian Intellectuals,” International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 20, no. 2 (2006): 185–213.

²⁵ Dars-hā-iie dar Falsafe-ye ‘Elme al-Ejtem‘ā [Lessons in the Philosophy of Social Sciences] (Tehran, 1995).

²⁶For Popper's influence on Iranian intellectuals including Soroush, see Ali Paya, “Karl Popper and Iranian Intellectuals,” Journal of American Islamic Social Sciences 20, no. 2 (2003): 50–79; Ali Paya, “Popper in Iran,” in Karl Popper: A Centenary Assessment, ed. Ian Jarvie, Karl Milford and David Miller (London, 2006); and Ali Paya & Mohammad Amin Ghaneirad, “The Philosopher and the Revolutionary State: How Karl Popper's Ideas Shaped the Views of Iranian Intellectuals,” International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 20, no. 2 (July 2006): 185–213.

²⁷T. W. Adorno, et.al. The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology, trans. Glyn Adey and David Frisby (London, 1976).

²⁸'Adolkarim Soroush, Dānesh va Arzesh [Knowledge and Value] (Tehran, 1983).

²⁹Jürgen Habermas, Knowledge and Human Interests, trans. Jeremy Shapiro (Boston, 1971a).

³⁰We have discussed Peymān's views and the ways he has used Habermas's ideas in constructing his system in a separate paper: Ali Paya and Mohammad Amin Ghaneirad, “A Muslim Intellectual and his Habermasian Interpretation of Islam,” (forthcoming, 2007).

³¹Saeed Hajjāriyan, Az Shāhed-e Qodsi tā Shāhed-e Bāzāri: ‘Urfi Shodan-e Din dar Sepeher-e Siyāsat [From the Sacred Witness to the Profane Witness: The Secularization of Religion in the Sphere of Politics] (Tehran, 2001).

³²Hādi Khāniki, Qodrat, Jam‘e-ye Madani va Maţbu‘at [Power, Civil Society and the Press], (Tehran, 2002).

³³Akbar Ganji, “Zistan dar Jāhani Āzād: Habermas-e Terrorist va Mollā ‘Omar-e Utopianist” [Living in a Free World: Habermas the Terrorist and Molla Omar the Utopist] Aftāb 11 (2001): 4–7.

³⁴J. F. Lyotard, Postmodern Condition: Report on Knowledge (Manchester, 1979/1984).

³⁵Ganji, “Zistan dar Jāhani Azād,” 6.

³⁷According to Pedrām (2000, 2003), Shari‘ati, who was highly influenced by Hegel and the young Marx, became familiar with Humanist Marxism through Sartre's works and produced a philosophical-sociological interpretation of modernity which can be regarded as the “Oriental counterpart of the Critical Theory.” Shari‘ati himself points out that he has found similarities between his own views and those of Marcuse's One Dimensional Man. Shari‘ati makes this point to emphasize that he has come to the same ideas via an independent route which has been informed and inspired, among other things, by some of the themes in a mystical interpretation of Islam.

³⁸Calculating reason, according to Shari‘ati, is an abstract, logical, calculating, power devoid of any emotion which ‘discovers only facts and makes use of these facts as means for achieving those ends which it has chosen according to some particular interests’. Such a reason, ‘while it furnishes the human beings and the society with rapid rational progress, attenuates many aspects of human life’ (1980). In other words, calculating reason paves the way for the emergence of a one-dimensional man: “while man can grasp many of the values and beauties, which are non-rational, by means of ‘mature reason’, the absolute dominance of ‘calculating reason’ causes these values to be neglected and diminished.”

³⁶Mas'oud Pedram, “Naz˙ariyh-ye Enteqādi” [Critical Theory] in Iran-e Fardā no. 29 (1996): 5; M. Pedram, “Ham-naz˙ary miyān-e Shari‘ati va maktab-e Frankfort: ‘aqlāniyat-e modern [Similarities between the views of Shariati and the Frankfurt School: Modern Rationality]. Paper presented at the Conference on Re-thinking Shari‘ati's Views (Mashad, 2000); M. Pedram, Roshanfekrān va Modernite [Intellectuals and Modernity] (Tehran, 2003).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Paya

Ali Paya is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the National Research Institute for Science Policy, Iran, and a Visiting Professor at the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, UK.

Mohammad Amin Ghaneirad

Mohammad Amin Ghaneirad is an Associate Professor of Sociology of Science at the National Research Institute for Science Policy, Iran.