1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910464067803321

Autore

Mirsepassi Ali

Titolo

Political Islam, Iran, and the enlightenment : philosophies of hope and despair / / Ali Mirsepassi [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2011

ISBN

1-107-21788-1

0-511-99361-7

0-511-99043-X

0-511-98682-3

0-511-99142-8

0-511-99241-6

1-283-05011-0

0-511-98862-1

9786613050113

0-511-97512-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (vii, 230 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

320.5/570955

Soggetti

Intellectuals - Political activity - Iran

Islam and politics - Iran

Politics and culture - Iran

Islam and secularism - Iran

Islamic modernism - Iran

Iran Politics and government

Iran Intellectual life

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: political Islam's romance with the 'West' -- 1. Intellectuals and the politics of despair -- 2. The crisis of the nativist imagination -- 3. Modernity beyond nativism and universalism -- 4. Heidegger and Iran: the dark side of being and belonging -- 5. Democracy and religion in the thought of John Dewey -- 6. Enlightenment and moral politics -- 7. Conclusion.



Sommario/riassunto

Ali Mirsepassi's book presents a powerful challenge to the dominant media and scholarly construction of radical Islamist politics, and their anti-Western ideology, as a purely Islamic phenomenon derived from insular, traditional and monolithic religious 'foundations'. It argues that the discourse of political Islam has strong connections to important and disturbing currents in Western philosophy and modern Western intellectual trends. The work demonstrates this by establishing links between important contemporary Iranian intellectuals and the central influence of Martin Heidegger's philosophy. We are also introduced to new democratic narratives of modernity linked to diverse intellectual trends in the West and in non-Western societies, notably in India, where the ideas of John Dewey have influenced important democratic social movements. As the first book to make such connections, it promises to be an important contribution to the field and will do much to overturn some pervasive assumptions about the dichotomy between East and West.