Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment
Philosophies of Hope and Despair

This book argues that the discourse of political Islam has strong connections to important, disturbing currents in Western philosophy and intellectual trends.

Ali Mirsepassi (Author)

9780521745901, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 6 December 2010

240 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.33 kg

"Ali Mirsepassi has established a reputation as a unique and bold scholar. He brings to Islamic studies a theoretical depth and scope rare among scholars. In Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment, he stakes out an original perspective that highlights the Enlightenment influences on contemporary Islamic thinking and politics. In particular, Mirsepassi provides a skillful analysis of Western cultural traditions and their impact on 20thc Iranian intellectuals. This volume will be of great interest to specialists of Islam and to political theorists." - Steven Seidman, Department of Sociology, State University of New York

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Religious & theocratic ideologies [JPFR], Political science & theory [JPA], Social theory [JHBA], Islamic studies [JFSR2], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Social & cultural history [HBTB]