A summary of remarks by Abdolkarim Soroush and Charles Butterworth at The Middle East Institute, November 21, 2000 On November 21, MEI gathered two scholars, the Iranian thinker Abdolkarim Soroush, visiting professor at Harvard University, and Charles Butterworth, Professor of Political Science at the University of Maryland, for a discussion on “Islamic […].
Types of Religiosity.
When we come to experiential religiosity, we step from the domain of separation into the domain of union. The previous types of religiosity can be described as religiosities of distance, for the first was physical and practical and the second mental and reflective. The first was based on instrumental rationality and the second on theoretical rationality.
Europe versus America.
Although I have visited England dozens of times, I have never spent more than one or two weeks at a single stretch. This year, for the first time, I am in residence for almost two months at Cambridge University, where I am the guest of a college and giving a series of lectures on humanism at the university. Although I have visited England dozens of times […].
Living in Arabic
The debate on the need to reform Islam, the Arabs and their language — by adopting demotic rather than classical Arabic — continues. Before his death last September argued such a debate reflects an extraordinary lack of the quotidian experience of living in Arabic The debate on the need to reform Islam, the Arabs and their language — by […].
The Arab condition.
My impression is that many Arabs today feel that what has been taking place in Iraq over the last two months is little short of a catastrophe. My impression is that many Arabs today feel that what has been taking place in Iraq over the last two months is little short of a catastrophe. True, Saddam Hussein’s regime was a despicable one in every way and it […].
Freud, Zionism, and Vienna
This is a parable worth a few lines here, although it derives from a rather peculiar personal experience of mine which has attracted unusual, if undeserv This is a parable worth a few lines here, although it derives from a rather peculiar personal experience of mine which has attracted unusual, if undeserved, media and public attention. Ordinarily, I don […].
A monument to hypocrisy
It has finally become intolerable to listen to or look at news in this country. I’ve told myself over and over again that one ought to leaf through the daily papers and turn on the TV for the national news every evening, just to find out what “the country” is thinking and planning, but patience and masochism have their limits. it has finally become intol […].
Defiance, dignity, and the rule of dogma
During the discussion period that followed a lecture of mine at Oxford three and a half years ago I was stunned by a question put to me by a young woman, whom I later discovered to have been a Palestinian student working for her doctorate at the university. During the discussion period that followed a lecture of mine at Oxford three and a half years ago […].
Text in Context. Abdolkarim Soroush.
The science of nature is a human endeavor to understand the nature, and the science of religion is a human endeavor to understand religion. All understanding assumes suppositions and entails “categorization,” that is subsuming the particular under universal categories and concepts. Understanding religion is no exception. It is preceded by certain assumpti […].
Indépendance et liberté – II –
Comme je l’ai noté dans la première partie, Eveil et Résistance, deux sujets ont dominé pour un certain temps l’espace virtuel de l’opposition tunisienne. L’un comme l’autre ont fait coulé beaucoup d’encre. Le premier, celui du négationnisme, qu’on va traiter dans cette deuxième partie de l’article, a divisé les tenants en deux groupes. Comme je l’ai not […].
في الحوار و المقاطعة و القطيعة.
الحديث عن ” الإنتخابت” التشريعية و الرئاسية و مقاطعتها هو حديث عن الشأن التونسي العام بمعنى أنه يخص أفراد و شرائح المجتمع التونسي على اختلاف مشاربهم و بغض النظر عن مدى عمق أو سطحية وعيهم السياسي و قدم أو حدوث تجربتهم النضالية. و لعل الأصوات المطالبة بحصر الحوار على ذوي الخبرة لا تعدو أن تكون سوى شكلا آخر من أشكال الوصاية على الشعب بدعوى قصوره و عدم رش […].
L’autre Amérique.
Au début de février, un entrefilet dans les journaux signalait que le prince Walid Ibn Talal venait de faire don de 10millions de dollars à l’université américaine du Caire pour l’établissement d’un département d’études américaines. Au début de février, un entrefilet dans les journaux signalait que le prince Walid Ibn Talal venait de faire don de 10milli […].
The Clash of Ignorance.
Samuel Huntington’s article “The Clash of Civilizations?” appeared in the Summer 1993 issue of Foreign Affairs, where it immediately attracted a surprising amount of attention and reaction. Samuel Huntington’s article “The Clash of Civilizations?” appeared in the Summer 1993 issue of Foreign Affairs, where it immediately attracted a surprising amount of […].
Le choc de l’ignorance.
L’article de Samuel Huntington, paru dans la livraison du printemps 1993 de la revue Foreign Affairs sous le titre “Le choc des civilisations”, a immédiatement concentré l’attention et suscité une surprenante vague de réactions. L’article de Samuel Huntington, paru dans la livraison du printemps 1993 de la revue Foreign Affairs sous le titre “Le choc des […].
L’humanisme, dernier rempart contre la barbarie.
En 1978, Edward W. Said publiait « L’Orientalisme », son livre majeur. Le grand intellectuel américain d’origine palestinienne s’en prenait aux reconstructions de l’Orient destinées à justifier les entreprises coloniales et néocoloniales de l’Occident. Vingt-cinq ans ont passé, il persiste et signe : si elle est authentique, la volonté de compre […].
A window on the world.
Western scholars helped justify the war in Iraq, says Edward Said, with their orientalist ideas about the ’Arab mind’. Twenty-five years after the publication of his post-colonial classic, the author of Orientalism argues that humanist understanding is now more urgently required than ever before. Nine years ago I wrote an afterword for Orientalism which, […].
Ma rencontre avec Jean-Paul Sartre.
Après avoir été le plus célèbre des intellectuels, Jean-Paul Sartre avait quasiment disparu, jusqu’à ces derniers temps. Peu après sa mort, en 1980, on dénonçait déjà son aveuglement face au goulag soviétique, et on tournait même en dérision l’optimisme, le volontarisme, l’énergie pure érigée en but de son existentialisme humaniste.
My Encounter with Sartre.
Once the most celebrated intellectual, Jean-Paul Sartre had, until quite recently, almost faded from view. He was already being attacked for his ’blindness’ about the Soviet gulags shortly after his death in 1980, and even his humanist Existentialism was ridiculed for its optimism, voluntarism and sheer energetic reach. Once the most celebrated intellect […].
