Bijan Abdolkarimi ( fa, بیژن عبدالکریمی; born 1963) is an Iranian philosopher, thinker,

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

, and editor. His main interests are

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

and the critique of

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

and intellectual traditions. He claims to challenge the dominant ideological discourse in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. He has participated in debates at Iranian universities and also in

IRIB TV4 IRIB TV4 ( fa, شبكه چهار, /ʃæbæke-je tʃɑhɑr/) is one of the 32 national television channels in Iran. Its slogan is "the channel of wisdom." The channel is operated by IRIB and started broadcasting in April 1994, shortly after IRIB ...

in which he has opposed the notion of Islamic humanities. He is also a scholar of Heidegger's thought and philosophy.

Career

Bijan was associate professor of philosophy at

Islamic Azad University North Tehran Branch The Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch ( fa, دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی, واحد تهران شمال, ''Dāneshgāh-e Āzād-e Eslāmi'') is a branch of the Islamic Azad University. It was founded in 1985 and currently has an ...

since 2001. On September 4th, 2021 he was fired from Islamic Azad University “for defending the Pahlavi 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 Gianteresio Vattimo (born 4 January 1936) is an Italian philosopher and politician. Biography Gianteresio Vattimo was born in Turin, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under the existentialist Luigi Pareyson at the University of Turin, and graduat ...

, 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 Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

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

Sources

External links

*
Abdolkarimi's Official Website

Conceptual Approaches in Contemporary Iranian Religious Reformism

Collection 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

Career

Views

Bibliography

See also

Sources

External links