The Idea of Persia

A Philosophical Enquiry
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-1-914983-32-0
Verlag: Gingko Press

Buch, Englisch, 144 Seiten, Format (B × H): 136 mm x 198 mm, Gewicht: 220 g

Reihe: GINGKO

In 1721, in his famous Lettres persane (The Persian Letters), the French philosopher Montesquieu posed the question ‘Comment peut-on être persan?’ The answer to that question is perhaps an even more wide-ranging, challenging and fascinating conundrum today.

In his exploration of where such an answer might be found, the renowned contemporary philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo turns to the writings of the politician and diplomat Muhammad Ali Foroughi (1877-1942), and his vision of what ‘being’ a Persian might embrace. After centuries of invasion, murder, destruction and authoritarian rule, this philosophical investigation examines Montesquieu’s original question against a backdrop in which a common, plural subjectivity of Persian-ness has been frustrated for centuries, and at a time when the country is wrestling with the possibility of an extended period of political, social and cultural decline. Even so, the battle for social and political freedoms is still underway in Iran; and in The Idea of Persia, the concept of nationhood is presented as the means by which Iranians may liberate themselves from the heroes and saints of old, and remake their political mentality in a manner that stays true to an age-old idea of Persian-ness, and to the author’s own belief in freedom as a virtue that has to be taught.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Foroughi, Muhammad Ali

Akhtar, Nadeem

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Gesellschaftstheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue: The Land of Hidden Politics 1

I. ‘Comment peut-on être persan?’ 11

II. Mapping Persianism 19

III. The Changing Concept of the Intellectual in Iran 29

IV. Muhammad Ali Foroughi: Enlightening the Idea

of Persia 43

V. Do Iranians Dream of Democracy? 55

VI. Is Nonviolence Possible in Iran? 73

Epilogue: Thinking and Acting without Heroes and Saints 93

Bibliography 101

Appendix I: ‘Why should one love Iran?’

by Muhammad Ali Foroughi 105

Appendix II: ‘Rights in Iran’ by Muhammad Ali Foroughi 113

Index 132

Acknowledgements 134

Über Autor(innen)

Ramin Jahanbegloo is an Iranian-Canadian political philosopher. He is currently the Executive Director of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Nonviolence and Peace Studies and the Vice-Dean of the School of Law at Jindal Global University - Delhi - India. 2001. Widely celebrated and published internationally, in 2006 Dr Jahanbegloo was arrested at Tehran Airport and served four months in solitary confinement, charged with preparing a velvet revolution in Iran. He is the winner of the Peace Prize from the United Nations Association in Spain (2009), and more recently the winner of the Josep Palau i Fabre International Essay Prize. He is also the founder of the movement ‘Non-violence Without Borders’.

Mohammad Ali Foroughi (1877–1942), was an Iranian politician and diplomat, who served three terms as Prime Minister of Iran. A prolific writer and a translator of Descartes in Persian, Foroughi could be considered as a chief architect of the Iranian Enlightenment.