Abstract
The last 100 years show a blatant oblivion among modern age Iranians, who have not sought nor cared to understand their national history and have failed to learn from their enriched past and hence continued on an erroneous path of borrowing notions that are utterly unrelated to the reality of our own state of affairs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Bakhsh AO (2009) The roots of Dystopia in Iran. In: Russell E (ed). Trans/Forming Utopia: The “small thin story” (Vol. 2). Peter Lan, p. 113.
- 2.
Ibid., p. 114.
- 3.
Aside from the common sense, this approach is conceptually based on the following: (a) as a member of community, man’s action is a form of social action; (b) his action, therefore, is socially situated; and (c) prevailing institutions are socially constructed.
- 4.
A common practice among Iran’s intellectualists criticizing each other without reading and understanding each other’s works—this is not critical thinking.
- 5.
The philosophical debates about enlightenment are intentionally excluded. Those who are interested in this topic are invited to see a fascinated book by Cascardi AJ (1999) Consequences of Enlightenment (Vol. 30). Cambridge University Press.
- 6.
Horkheimer M, Adorno TW, Noerr GS (2002) Dialectic of enlightenment: Philosophical fragments. Stanford University Press, p. xvi.
- 7.
The main proposal of Martin Bernal is that the Greek culture has been misrepresented as Indo-European in origin when in fact it is largely African and Semitic. For fascinating discussion of Martin Bernal book and related issue see Fritze RH (2009) Invented knowledge: false history, fake science, and pseudo-religions. Reaktion Books, Chapter 6. However, Bernal was not the first to propose this thesis. The idea was first presented in G. James’ Stolen Legacy in which James proposes that Plato, Aristotle, and other major Greek philosophers “stole” their ideas from Egypt.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Tocqueville AD (2004) Democracy in America. Trans: Arthur Goldhammer. Library of America, p. 486.
- 10.
See Wikipedians (ed) (2011) Library of Classification. Pedia Press, p. 44, under subtitle “Religion: Theology”. While prophets of monolithic religion originated in East, the West, during the enlightenment, was a place for different kinds of messengers, unholy but non conformers as sort of intellectual prophets whose audacious works have been pursued as the Holy Book. Most notable among them are John Stuart Mill, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Voltaire, and Karl Marx.
- 11.
On a related issue, Anthony Giddens points out, “Judaism and Christianity rest on the tension between sin and salvation and that gives them a basic transformative capacity which the Far Eastern religions lack, being more contemplative in orientation. The opposition between the imperfections of the world and the perfection of God, in Christian theodicy, enjoins the believer to achieve his salvation through refashioning the world in accordance with the Divine purpose (See Anthony Giddens, “Introduction” in Weber M (1992) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: and other writings. Trans: Talcott Parsons, p. xvi).
- 12.
The enlightenment in religion, however, was the followup of centuries of transformation and restructuring of the Roman Church. Here, few selected outcomes are depicted. I began in eleventh century when papacy, “assumed a greater role in the direction of both church and society. The popes continued to exert their traditional authority over matters of doctrine and faith and presided over councils that ordered religious life and practice. The papal court became the court of last appeal, and the assertion of papal jurisdiction even into secular matters “by reason of sin” (ratio peccati) greatly expanded papal authority and sometimes led to conflicts with secular powers … The twelfth century was a period in which there arose new institutions of higher education, innovative techniques of thought and speech, and fresh approaches to ancient problems of philosophy and theology, all of which profoundly influenced the development of Christian belief and practice … philosophy was revived through the development of logic and dialectic and their application to doctrines of the faith in formal exercises, in Augustinian speculation, and in critical reformulation … The first handbook of theology was composed by Abelard, a provocative and brilliant thinker who used Aristotle’s logic in his explorations of the faith. In his Sic et non (Yes and No), he compiled 158 questions, together with contradictory answers found in the works of earlier theologians. He refused to provide resolutions to the opposing points of view, forcing readers to think for themselves but also emphasizing the ultimate authority of the Bible over human thought … The thirteenth century in Europe as a whole was a time of pastoral activity in which bishops and university-trained clergy perfected the diocesan and parish organization and reformed many abuses … but clashes soon occurred; the papacy gave the friars exemptions and privileges so wide that the basic rights of the secular clergy were threatened. An academic “war of pamphlets” led to an attack on the vocation and work of the friars … As the fourteenth century proceeded, the so-called medieval synthesis of the Scholastic theologians was undone by the works of Ockham and John Duns Scotus, and nominalism captured the universities. In England, John Wycliffe challenged the papacy and the teachings of the church, prefiguring the attacks of the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century. Although condemned by the church, Wycliffe influenced the thought of Jan Hus and, especially, the Lollards of England. The church also suffered from the destruction of the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) between England and France and the devastation of the Black Death (1348–1349), which decimated the population of Europe and inspired both orthodox and heterodox religious movements.” (Frassetto M et al (2009) Encyclopedia Britannica. Roman Catholicism. http://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism. Accessed 9 October 2014).
- 13.
It should be noted that many other factors contributed to the reform: the decline of feudalism and the rise of nationalism, the rise of the common law (also known as case law or precedent, is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals that decide individual cases, as opposed to statutes adopted through the legislative process or regulations issued by the executive branch), the invention of the printing press and increased circulation of the Bible, as a result of its translations, etc.
- 14.
Beales D (2005) Enlightenment and reform in eighteenth-century Europe (Vol. 29). IB Tauris, p. 16.
- 15.
Kirby M (2000) Sociology in perspective. Heinemann, p. 413.
- 16.
Arendt H (1978) The Life of the Mind, vol. 1. Thinking, 2. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p. 7.
- 17.
The story goes as follows; Aristotle taught that the Earth was the center of the Universe, in which the Sun, the Moon, and the planets orbited the Earth (known as geocentric theory). Later Claudius Ptolemy wrote that the Earth was motionless because constant gales would sweep across it if it were in motion. In his system, each planet revolved around the earth in a large circle by making a series of small circles, to account for this effect. The Roman Catholic Church adopted the theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy, perhaps because the Church leaders felt that they had the duty of teaching the people about the universe, which declared the glory of God. Their teaching, nevertheless, played an important role in presenting these theories to the Europeans. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a priest and reformer, used the writings of these men to show that the heavens were “God-ordained and man-centered.” Nicholas Copernicus, in the fifteenth century, who studied to become a priest set out to improve the system devised by Ptolemy. However, he realized that the rising and setting of the Sun, Moon, and Stars could be accounted for by a daily revolution of the Earth. His idea that the Earth and planets orbited about the sun became known as the “heliocentric theory.” He wrote about it in his book “De Revolutionibus,” which translates to “Concerning the Revolutions.” Copernicus defended his placement of the Sun at the center of the Universe by asking, “For who would place this lamp of a very beautiful temple in another or better place than this, wherefrom it can illuminate everything at the same time?”. In sixteenth century, Galileo Galilei supported Copernicus’ heliocentric theory and in doing so angered the Roman Catholic Church. He was arrested and later forced to kneel before the tribunal of the Church (the Inquisition) and confess that heliocentric theory was False. And the rest is history. However, it is noteworthy that it took the Roman Catholic Church more than 400 years to repeal the inquisition against Galileo in 1992. See http://www.vibrationdata.com/space/helio.html.
- 18.
Way back in the eleventh century, Saadi Shirazi also echoes a similar message as he has observed, “Naborde ranj ganj moyassar nemishavad, Mozd on kreft John-i brader ki kar kard (in the absence of toil, a treasure is unattainable, reward goes to those who labor”).
- 19.
Locke J (1690) Second treatise of government. Digitized by Dave Gowan, dgowan@freenet.scri.fsu.edu. Sec. 40 and sec. 42, respectively.
- 20.
Beales D (2005) Enlightenment and reform in eighteenth-century Europe (Vol. 29). IB Tauris, p. 62.
- 21.
Cassirer E (1946) The Myth of the State. Yale University Press, p. 92.
- 22.
Desmond W (1995) Perplexity and ultimacy: metaphysical thoughts from the middle. SUNY Press, p. 179.
- 23.
Cassirer E (1946) The Myth of the State. Yale University Press, pp. 93–94. Emphasis Origin. It should be noted that Petrus Damiani’s sentiments should not be viewed as an extreme orthodoxy. For one thing, they resonated with many in our world today, due to the fact that many faithful today, and in my humble opinion correctly, do not over intellectualize their religion conviction, and perceive the only way of being close to God is by the fulfillment of his demand; not by interpreting or reforming his words, as some do in Iran and elsewhere, but by obedience to his will and commands, as the scripture said “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall … which knows nothing of repentance” (Exodus 19:5). This is the essence of the monolithic religion that is why they are called monolithic.
- 24.
Most notable among them were three Islamic philosophers of Iranian decent: Al-Farabi (870–930), Ibn Sina or Avicenna (980–1037) and Al-Gazali (1058–1111), and Spanish born Averroes or Ibn Rushd (1126–1198). Before going further, it must be noted that the emphasis on the nationality of these thinkers is not intended to indicate superiority of one nation over others, since without the accumulated wealth in the Islamic Empire, none of them could have existed. The point is to underline the Iranian inclination to pursue knowledge at the time. Now, back to our topic, Farabi primarily significance is related to the fact that he is a pioneer in the invocation of Aristotle as a philosophical authority, which in later years paved the way for the Golden Age of Muslim Aristotelianism. In Avicenna’s thoughts, however, we find the development of a philosophy more independent of theological constraints who rejects the conception of a divine creation of the world in time, in that God is contemporaneous with the world. As an Aristotelian, he was also less apologetic to assumed Platonic doctrine (that we are born possessing all knowledge and our realization of that knowledge is contingent on our discovery of it). Ghazali had an important influence on the use of logic in theology. In his celebrated text Tahāfut al-falāsifah (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), he attacks the inconsistency of the philosophical positions of Alfarabi and Avicenna with orthodox Koranic interpretation. Finally, Rushd is generally regarded in the West as the greatest of the Islamic philosophers of the Medieval period and indeed one of the greatest Medieval philosophers. Nicknamed “The Commentator” (because of his incisive commentaries on Aristotle), one of Rushd’s major work is called Tahāfut al-tahāfut (the Incoherence of Incoherence), he refutes Gazali’s the Incoherence of Philosophy and defends a consistent Aristotelianism, and in doing so he is critical of the philosophical compromises made in the name of theological orthodoxy. He grounds this conviction in a three-tiered conception of truth, which privileges what he terms “demonstrative truth” (i.e., philosophical truth) over what he terms “dialectical” and “rhetorical” truth (see see Irwin J (2008) Averroes’s Reason: A Medieval Tale of Christianity and Islam http://www.averroes.or.id/averroes-reason-a-medieval-tale-of-christianity-and-islam.html). For more discussions on these topics see Nasr SH, Aminrazavi M (2007) Anthology of Philosophyin Persia: From Zoroaster to Omar Khayyam. IB Tauris.
- 25.
For insightful information on Ghazzali and Rushd, see Netton, IR (2013) Encyclopaedia of Islam. Routledge, pp. 264–5.
- 26.
Nasr SH (2007) Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad Ghazzālī. In: Nasr SH, Aminrazavi M (2007) Anthology of Philosophy in Persia: From Zoroaster to Omar Khayyam. IB Tauris, p. 86.
- 27.
Huff TE (2003) The rise of early modern science: Islam, China, and the West. Cambridge University Press, p. 214. Huff elaborates further on the East’ indifference toward Ibn Rushd by stating, “it must be remembered that Arabic-Islamic civilization without Spain (effectively after the fall of Seville in 1248, and definitively after 1492) continued on, largely undisturbed (despite the Mongols’ invasion) until the incursions of Napoleon into Egypt in 1798.” Ibid.
- 28.
According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “In the Timaeus Plato presents an elaborately wrought account of the formation of the universe. Plato is deeply impressed with the order and beauty he observes in the universe, and his project in the dialogue is to explain that order and beauty. The universe, he proposes, is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency. It is the handiwork of a divine Craftsman (“Demiurge,” dêmiourgos, 28a6), who, imitating an unchanging and eternal model, imposes mathematical order on a preexistent chaos to generate the ordered universe (kosmos).” (See http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-timaeus/. Emphasis added). Moreover, what I mean by holding back is the fact that they did not elaborate the rationalistic or mechanistic worldview (closely linked with the early version of materialism) that the Western thinkers of the twelfth century built on Plato’s edifice.
- 29.
Barton J (2007) The nature of biblical criticism. Presbyterian Publishing Corp. See also Cohen HF (1994) The scientific revolution: a historiographical inquiry. University of Chicago Press, pp. 310–314; Holbert JC, McKenzie AM (2011) What Not to Say: Avoiding the Common Mistakes That Can Sink Your Sermon. Presbyterian Publishing Corp; Smalley B (1952) Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press; Hoskyns SEC, Davey FN (1958). The riddle of the New Testament. Faber & Faber Limited; and Popkin R (1974) Bible Criticism and Social Science. In: Cohen RS, Wartofsky MW (ed) (1974). Methodological and Historical Essays in the Natural and Social Sciences. Reidel, pp. 339–360.
- 30.
Badakhchani SJH (ed) (1999) Contemplation and Action: The Spiritual Autobiography of a Muslim Scholar - Nasir al-Din Tusi. IB Tauris, London, p. 30.
- 31.
Kant I, Denis L (2005) Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Broadview Press Ltd, p. 119.
- 32.
Some in Iran, like elsewhere outside the Western world, relentlessly suggest that we should pursue Western novelties by mere imitation. Beside the fact that a process of duplication of ideas is a total insanity, cherry picking is doomed to fail at its conception because these novelties are an integral part of a whole process of change. The fact is, rewards go only to those who carry the water on their shoulder instead of waiting for an opportune time to drink it. Moreover, these ideas must be correctly comprehended. It is imperative to understand that freedom without equality is farce, and equality cannot last if it is not accompanied by equity. This is why the declaration of independence in United State had to be changed from “in pursuit of life, liberty, and property” to “in pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness”, because Samuel Adams correctly realized that liberty couldn’t be pursued when there is no equality. Mind you that happiness does not necessarily lead us to equality, however, it does not contradict it either. For an informative discussion of this topic, see Allen D (2014) Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. Liveright.
- 33.
According to Nezam-Mafi, “The death of Abbas Mirza has been rightly considered by historians as a disaster for Iran. His plans for reform and modernization were forgotten, or the little effect they had had was soon obliterated.” (See Nezam-Mafi ME (2012) Qajar Iran (1795–1921). In: Daryaee T (ed) (2012). The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, p. 327).
- 34.
Adorno TW, Horkheimer M (2002). The culture industry: Enlightenment as mass deception (trans: Jephcott E). In Noerr GS (ed), Dialectic of enlightenment: Philosophical fragments (pp. 94–136). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
- 35.
We must have realized that these phrases have far reaching consequences that we neither can tolerate, nor accept since they run against the East celebrated absolutisms and divine righteousness.
- 36.
Bagehot W (2001) Physics and Politics. Batoche Books Limited (originally published by Henry S. King & Co, 1872), p. 92.
- 37.
Max Weber in 1904 wrote, “The ‘objective’ validity of all empirical knowledge rests exclusively upon the ordering of the given reality according to categories which are ‘subjective’ in a specific sense, namely, in that they present the ‘presuppositions’ of our knowledge and are based on the presupposition of the ‘value’ of those ‘truths’ which empirical knowledge alone is able to give us. The means available to our science offer nothing to those persons to whom this truth is of no value. It should be remembered that the belief in the value of scientific truth is the product of certain cultures and is not a product of man’s original nature. Those for whom scientific truth is of no value will seek in vain for other truth to take the place of since”. (see Weber M (1949) The Methodology of The Social Science. Trans: Edward A. Shils and Henry A. Finch. Free Press, pp. 110–111. Italic added.) In 1938, Robert K. Merton added to Weber’s observation by stating, “This belief [in scientific truth] is readily transmitted into doubt and disbelief. The persistent development of science occurs in societies of a certain order, subject to a peculiar complex of tacit presuppositions and institutional constraints. What is for us a phenomenon which demands no explain and secures many self-evident cultural values, has been in other times and still is in many places abnormal and infrequent. The continuity of science requires the active participation of interested and capable persons in scientific pursuits. But this support of science is assured only by [the presence of] appropriate cultural conditions.” (see Merton RK (1973) The sociology of science: Theoretical and empirical investigations. University of Chicago Press, p. 254).
- 38.
For reading on this topic see Anderson CA, Bowman MJ (eds) (1965) Education and economic development. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago; Graff HJ (1981) Literacy and social development in the West: A reader (No. 3). CUP Archive; de Oliveira MK, Valsiner J (1998) Literacy in human development. Greenwood Publishing Group; Szirmai A (2005) The dynamics of socioeconomic development: an introduction. Cambridge University Press, Chapter 7; Graff HJ (2007) Literacy and Historical Development. SIU Press.
- 39.
Galbraith JK (1963) Economic Development in Perspective. Harvard University Press, pp. 8–9.
- 40.
North DC, Thomas RP (1973) The rise of the western world: A new economic history. Cambridge University Press, p. 56.
- 41.
Houston RA (2001) Literacy. In: Stearns PN (ed) (2001) Encyclopedia of European social history from 1350 to 2000 (Vol. 6). Scribner Book Company, p. 85.
- 42.
To the best of my knowledge, a discussion on Iranian illiteracy has been curiously absent in almost all studies about Iran, including analyses as well as analytical examination of socioeconomic development, economics as well as political discourse on the importance of Western notions such as democracy, civil society, etc. No one seem to note about the fact that if people are encouraged to embrace an idea they should first understand it and such understanding cannot be possible if they cannot read!
- 43.
Browne EG (1910) The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909. Cambridge University Press, p. 374.
- 44.
Ibid., p. 375. To make the matter even more senseless, to put it mildly, the same article continues, “If, however, anything should be discovered in them contrary to the Press law, the publisher or writer is liable to punishment according to that law. If the writer be known, and is resident in Persia, then the publisher, printer, and distributor shall not be liable to prosecution.”
- 45.
Earlier in the paragraph I said “a clear confusion” and I ended the section by stating “the text was written by conscious rather than uninformed delegates”. There is no contradiction here since what is a clear confusion is habitually perceived as lucidity in Iran. What I am underlying here is that our alleged astuteness that often appears as we choose to attain many objectives, regardless of their contradictory nature, in one attempt. Although, often than not, we have failed to achieve anything except feeling good about ourselves at the moment. Moreover, there were some outcomes that could not be foreseen by legislators. For instance, Soli Shahvar, underlined the fact that permitting the private sector entrance in promotion of contemporary education in the country has led to establishment of the first Baha’i school in Tehran in 1899 (and by the 1930s there were dozens of Baha’i schools), which was obviously perceived against the ecclesiastical law (see Shahvar S (2009) The Forgotten Schools: The Baha’is and Modern Education in Iran, 1899–1934. I. B. Tauris).
- 46.
See Arasteh AR (1962) Education and Social Awakening in Iran: 1850–1960. E. J. Brill, p. 32. Edward Browne also made a illuminating and relevant observation when he noted, ““in Persia (unlike England, perhaps) in nobility, attainments, virtue, knowledge, and culture the middle classes are infinitely superior to the upper classes,” who, he [Browne’s informant] considered, were hopelessly rotten and should be displaced to make room for their less aristocratic but infinitely more capable and virtuous countrymen”. (See Browne EG (1910) The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909. Cambridge University Press, p. 432. Emphasis original).
- 47.
At the time, madrasseh were also known as nezamiyeh in honor of its founder. The Saljuq ruled Iran in the eleventh century when the Persia was in a state of anarchy. Saljuq governing method was based on the tribal organization common in Turkic and Mongol nomads and resembled a “family federation” or “appanage state” (For detailed analyses of Saljug Governing organization, see Project Gutenberg at http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/great_seljuq_empire).
- 48.
For instance there were eight madrasseh in the city of Qom, one in the city of Qazvini called Modarresi Tabataba-I, seven in the city of Ray, four in Ka’shan, etc. (see Zaryab A (1997) Education v. The Madrasa in Shi’ite Persia. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Available at: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/education-v-the-madrasa-in-shiite-persia).
- 49.
According to Reza Arasteh, the author of one and only comprehensive education system in Iran, “Each master [instructor] had his own group of pupils and when he felt that they had mastered a particular course of study he gave them a certificate of completion. There was no fixed term of study. Some acquired a basic background in a few years and went out into the world to become clergymen or maktab-dars; others continued their work, and the most scholarly then went on to institutions of higher learning at Qom, Meshhad, Isfahan, or to Karbala and Najaf in Iraq. There was considerable prestige attached to the scholarly education of the madrasseh.” (See Arasteh AR (1962) Education and Social Awakening in Iran: 1850–1960. E. J. Brill, pp. 61–62).
- 50.
Some idea of the expenses and organization of madrassehs is given by Rochechouart CJ (1867) Souvenirs d’un Voyage en Persee en 1867. Challemel Aine Editeur, Paris, pp. 110–111.
- 51.
See Tonkin E (1995) Narrating Our Pasts: The Social Construction of Oral History. Cambridge University Press.
- 52.
Portelli A (1997) The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue. University of Wisconsin Press, p. 3. My interpretation of Portelli’s observation is that oral history might be understood as a self-conscious, constructed conversation between a historian (interviewer) and a narrator. The questions of the historian deriving from a particular frame of references or particular interest, elicit certain responses from the narrator, extracting from the narrator’s frame of references, sense of what is crucial or what the narrator perceived to be crucial.
- 53.
For a description of the term see Bradly DL (2015) Dictionary of Iran: A Shorter Encyclopedia. Lulu.com, p. 351. For its historical analysis see Mostofi A (1997) The Administrative and Social History of the Qajar Period. Mazda Publisher.
- 54.
For instance, the Ta’ziyeh and its main plot, Karbala tragedy has been handed down as part of Iran’s verbalized, rather than written tradition.
- 55.
Some may argue that other nations, Western or non-Western, also share some or all of these traditions as well, and hence their population as well as their cultures should be viewed as illiterate. Not quite for the following reason. First, some of these traditions, e.g., storytelling in Iran, go back to pre-Islamic period. Second, the illiteracy conclusion was drawn based on published data and direct observation from printed texts on the subjects and related issues. The traditions that have been noted as examples, therefore, are used to illustrate their roots in the traditional Iranian culture, and hence reinforced their intrinsic ascriptions.
- 56.
It should also be noted that throughout the Islamic world, the Qur’an’s oral role is as important as its written form. In fact, the word “Qur’an” derives from the root qar’a (to recite). See http://poetryprayer.thewalters.org/recitation/.
- 57.
Niloufar Talebi also provides us with a brief history on the storytelling tradition in Iran and how it has evolved: Naghali, Pardeh-dari, Pardeh-khaani, Ghavali (minstrelsy), Shahnameh-khaani, are Iranian storytelling traditions, practiced usually in the streets and coffee houses, storyteller titles varying according to their style of storytelling and the subject matter of the stories told. Pardeh-dari and Pardeh-khaani are visual forms of storytelling done before a big cloth or canvas (pardeh) hung in a square, or the walls of a tea of coffee house, painted on which are the events of the story being told, which the storyteller would refer to during their recounting. (See Talebi N (2009) “Memory of a Phoenix Feather”: Iranian Storytelling Traditions and Contemporary Theater. World Literature Today, 49–53). Jamshid Malik’pur in The Islamic Drama tell us, “For hundreds of years, there have been solo performers in Iran known as naghals or storytellers. According to the style of storytelling and the subject, every storyteller had one goal: to give life to a story and its characters for an audience. In the pre-Islamic period, the story telling was known as ghavali or minstrelsy, and involved telling a story accompanied by song and music.” (See Malik’pur J (2004) The Islamic Drama. Psychology Press, p. 60).
- 58.
Quoted in Marzolph U, Radhayrapetian J (1994) Iranian Folk Narrative. A Survey of Scholarship. The Garland Folklore Library 1.
- 59.
Avery P (1991) Printing, The Press and Literature in Modern Iran. In: Avery P, Hambly G, Melville C (eds) The Cambridge History of Iran (Vol. 7): From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic. Chapter 22. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 829.
- 60.
Arendt H (1978) The Life of the Mind, vol. 1. Thinking, 2. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p. 6.
- 61.
In a sense of holding the standard of perfection of Divinity relative to earthly imperfections of all creatures, beginning with your triviality. You don’t belittle a toddler for not being an adult, but must submit your being and thoughts to oblivion relative to the divine truth for lasting vitality.
- 62.
See Jamsihdpour H (1985) Abu-Rayha Biruni inductive Methodological Approach to the Examination of Objective Material Phenomena. Ph.D. Dissertation, King’s College, p. iii. This work also provides an excellent and informative discussion on the cosmological theoretical positions of Persian Islamic polymath and scholar, Abu Rayhan Biruni and Persian Islamic polymath and jurist, Ibn Sina’s prime exponent of the peripatetic approach to scientific theory, a millennium ago.
- 63.
In Farsi we have two nouns for education, Amoozesh va Parvaresh, which can be either translated as “education and training” or “teaching and learning”, both of which conveys a very different connotation.
- 64.
After Iran was defeated by Russia in 1828, the government realized “the need for a bureaucratic administration, which in turn required a system of higher education geared to the production of trained government personnel, who lacked, however, research or professional aims.” (See Arasteh AR (1964) Man and society in Iran. Brill Archive, p. 20). Amir Kabir, the Prime Minister in the Nasir al-Din Shah reign in the mid-nineteenth century, in the process of reorganizing the army, realized the value of developing well-trained officers and administrators. He envisioned an institution of higher learning in Tehran, and he succeeded in setting up a polytechnic school, Dar al-Funun, completed just forty days before his dismissal in 1851. He not only supervised the construction of the building but personally made arrangements for the employment of a teaching staff and the course of study. Because of the Anglo-Russian rivalry of interests in Iran, Amir Kabir sought educational assistance from Austria. He gave his Austrian envoy authority to make contracts with the Austrian professors for a period of four to six years …. The professors, selected with the help of the Emperor, represented a variety of disciplines: artillery, infantry, cavalry, military engineering, medicine, surgery, physics, mathematics, mineralogy and chemistry … the first-class 105 students, who enrolled in the following fields; army science (61), engineering and mining (12), medicine (20), chemistry and pharmacy (7) and mineralogy (5). Tuition was free and students received a small stipend plus their meals … In 1864 one of the teachers with the help of a student set up the first telegraph wire in Iran: it ran from the central office of the school to the main garden in the middle of the city (Baq-e lalezar). The following year a graduate of the college was put in charge of extending the telegraph from Tehran to the West of Iran and also toward the Caspian Sea.” (Ibid., pp. 20–21).
- 65.
The finite attributes of this knowledge appears more readily once we come across social science subjects such as a historical ilm, which are notorious to turn upside down or utterly excluded as regime changes, minster replaced, or years of schooling altered according to a new central planning scheme. In this respect, ilm has been forged and deluded by various narratives, and hence instructions turned into cookbook-recipes that mainly put emphasis on the fixed content of true ilm—recipes ready to be memorized for generations.
- 66.
In the same manner, we relentlessly fought for democracy, but to no avail mainly because we always neglect its complementary element, equality.
- 67.
Pritchett L (2013) The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain’t Learning. CGD Books, p. 121. One of the stunning thing Pritchett found is the change in schooling has been so rapid that the average Haitian or Bangladeshi in 2010 had more years of schooling than the average French or Italian person did in 1960. (That data looks at average years of schooling for people 15 and older, by the way.) Even repressive and nondemocratic countries have seen tremendous gains: “Good governments do schooling, but nearly all bad governments do it, too,” Mr. Pritchett writes. (See http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/the-gap-between-schooling-and-education/?_r=0).
- 68.
There is no doubt that these fields and contents in which they present must be taught and used to enlarge a horizon of our understanding of respective fields. Nevertheless, the point of contention is two-folded here. First, whether these notions should be taught alongside alternative/critical views as well as their histories in order to illuminate the evolutionary process, e.g., the required necessary and sufficient condition needed for these ideas to be affective; the specific problems that evoked the formulation of ideas; the original text by author if ideas instead of interpretation of others, etc. (To address some of these issues in economics, for instance, candidate text books can be Alfred Marshall’s Principles of Economics; John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory, as well as Essay in Persuasion; Joan Robinson, What are the Questions And Other Essays; and Mark Blaug’s Economic Theory in Retrospect). Second, these ideas, should not be idealized to the extent in which viewed as antidotes that fit anywhere as well, they are not.
- 69.
See Geuss R (1981) The Idea of Critical Theory; Habermas and the Frankfurt School, Cambridge University Press, pp. 2–3.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pirzadeh, A. (2016). The Role of Ideas and Education in Iranian Society. In: Iran Revisited. Arts, Research, Innovation and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30485-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30485-4_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30483-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30485-4
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)