Bijan Abdolkarimi ( fa, بیژن عبدالکریمی; born 1963) is an Iranian
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
thinker,
translator, and
editor
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...
.
His main interests are
ontology,
political philosophy and the critique of
religious and
intellectual tradition
A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement.
H ...
s. He claims to challenge the dominant
ideological discourse
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...
in
Iran.
He has participated in debates at Iranian universities and also in
IRIB TV4 in which he has opposed the notion of
Islamic humanities.
He is also a scholar of
Heidegger's thought and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
.
Career
Bijan was associate professor of philosophy at
Islamic Azad University North Tehran Branch since 2001.
On September 4th, 2021 he was fired from Islamic Azad University “for defending the
Pahlavi
Pahlavi may refer to:
Iranian royalty
*Seven Parthian clans, ruling Parthian families during the Sasanian Empire
*Pahlavi dynasty, the ruling house of Imperial State of Persia/Iran from 1925 until 1979
**Reza Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878–1944 ...
monarchy”.
Views
The main characteristics of Abdolkarimi's thought may be summarized as follows:
* Abdolkarimi seeks to present a spiritual, meditative interpretation of Heidegger's thought.
* The
relation between the West and East is his main issue in his philosophical thinking. He strongly criticizes any ideological, theological understanding of the West and East. He emphasizes a historical, phenomenological understanding of these two traditions.
* He has worked on the theory of the
end of theology and its critical connotations. Following
Gianni Vattimo, he believes that the main philosophical characteristic of our time is the
destroyed ontology. Abdolkarimi interprets Vattimo's idea as the "
metaphysicslessness of our time". But in the context of Abdolkarimi's thought, the term
metaphysics is not merely in the
Greek sense and refers to any historical theoretical tradition.
* Abdolkarimi believes that the human being's future thought is a kind of nonsecular-nontheological thinking, namely a way of thinking that is in disagreement to the secular, materialistic interpretation of the world, but at the same time does not settle in any historic, theological systems.
Bibliography
* ''Reflections on the Paradox of Directed Democracy'', Eshraghieh Press, Tehran, 1989
* ''Shariati and Being Politicized'', Resa Institute of Cultural Service, Tehran, 1995
* ''Thought and Politics'', Tehran: Elmi o Farhangi, 1977.
* ''The Story of Me and Thou'', Tehran: Critique of Culture, 2001
* ''Heidegger and Transcendence'' (A Commentary of Heidegger's Interpretation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason), Tehran: Critique of Culture, 2002
* ''Emancipation or Dominance?'' (A Critique of the System of Religious Education in Iran), with Mohammad Ali Mohammadi, Tehran: Critique of Culture, 2002
* ''Monism or Pluralism?'' (Mobile Thinking or Homeless Thought) (A Critique of
Daryoush Shaygan's Modern Enchantedness), Tehran: Critique of Culture, 2004
* ''Nietzscheian World and Us'', Elm Publication, Tehran, 2009
* ''Hegel or Marx?'' (A Critique of Iranian Intellectuals), Tehran: Critique of Culture, 2002.
* ''Heidegger in Iran'', Iranian Institute of Philosophy, 2013
See also
*
Intellectual Movements in Iran
*
Iranian philosophy
*
Religious intellectualism in Iran
Sources
External links
*
Abdolkarimi's Official WebsiteConceptual Approaches in Contemporary Iranian Religious ReformismCollection of Abdolkarimi's Lectures in Farsi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdolkarimi, Bijan
1963 births
20th-century essayists
20th-century Iranian philosophers
20th-century translators
21st-century essayists
21st-century Iranian philosophers
21st-century translators
Aligarh Muslim University alumni
Commentators on Plato
Continental philosophers
Cultural critics
English–Persian translators
Existentialists
Faculty of Letters and Humanities of the University of Tehran alumni
Heidegger scholars
Hermeneutists
Historians of philosophy
Intellectual history
Iranian essayists
Iranian non-fiction writers
Islamic Azad University faculty
Living people
Muslim reformers
Nietzsche scholars
Ontologists
Writers from Tehran
Persian-language writers
Phenomenologists
Philosophers of culture
Philosophers of education
Philosophers of history
Philosophers of mind
Philosophers of nihilism
Philosophers of religion
Philosophers of social science
Philosophy academics
Philosophy writers
Political philosophers
Social commentators
Social critics
Social philosophers
Theorists on Western civilization
University of Tehran alumni
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about globalization
Writers about religion and science
Male non-fiction writers