Taha Abderrahmane, (born on 28 May 1944) is a Moroccan philosopher, and one of the leading philosophers and thinkers in the Arab-Islamic world. His work centers on

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...

and philosophy of morality and

contractarian In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social ...

ethics. He believes in multiple modernities and seeks to establish an ethical and humanitarian modernity based on the values and principles of Islam and the Arab tradition.

Early life and education

Abderrahmane was born on 28 May 1944, and raised in

El Jadida El Jadida (, ; originally known in Berber as Maziɣen or Mazighen; known in Portuguese as Mazagão) is a major port city on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, located 96 km south of the city of Casablanca, in the province of El Jadida and the ...

(province of

) there he went to basic school, after that he moved to Casablanca where he continued his high school, and then he joined the

Mohammed V University Mohammed V University (, french: Université Mohammed-V de Rabat), in Rabat, Morocco, was founded in 1957 under a royal decree ( Dahir). It is the first modern university in Morocco after the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez. History The uni ...

( Rabat, Morocco) where he obtained his licentiate in philosophy. He completed his studies at the university of

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

where he received his second licentiate and obtained his '' doctoral third level'' in the year of 1972 on the subject: "Language and philosophy: a study of the linguistic structures of ontology", and in 1985 he earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in the philosophy on the subject "study of argumentation and its methods" (in French: ''Essai sur les logiques des raisonnements argumentatifs et naturels'', literally "Essay on the logic of reasoning argumentatives and naturals"). In addition to speaking Arabic, French and English, he also reads German, Latin and Ancient GreekDialogue as Horizon of Thought, 2013 - in order to read philosophy authors in their original language. Two notes on the name: First, he is known in all his books as Taha Abderrahmane, though his first name is Abderrahmane and Taha is his family name; scholars in English often repeat "Abderrahmane" as if it were his family name, following the way it appears in his books, while in the Arab world often the repeated name is Taha, and his philosophy is known as "Taha'iyya", i.e. "Taha'ian". Second, the right and official spelling of his name in his official documents is Abderrahmane, and not Abdurrahman or Abdul Rahman.

Career in academia

Abderrahmane served as a professor of philosophy of language and logic at

from 1970 until his retirement in 2005. He is a member of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation which he represents in Morocco, representative of Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Philosophie / Society of Intercultural Philosophy, and director of Wisdom Circle for Thinkers and Researchers. He was awarded the Prize of Morocco twice, and in 2006 the ISESCO Prize in Islamic thought and philosophy.

Characteristics of his method

His philosophical practice is characterized by a combination of "logical analysis" and "linguistic derivation" proceeding a mystical experience, in a framework to provide the concepts related to the Islamic heritage and based on the most important achievements of modern Western thought on the level of "theories of speech" and "argumentative logic" and "philosophy of ethics", which makes his philosophizing predominantly appearing in a "moral" and "deliberative" style.

Most important works

* ''Language and philosophy: an essay on the linguistic structures of ontology'' (in French), 1979 * ''A treatise on deductive and natural argumentation and its models'' (in French), 1985 * ''Formal Logic and Grammar'', 1985 * ''On the basics of Dialogue and Renovation of the Islamic theology'', 1987 * ''Religious Practice and Renewal of the Reason'', 1989 * ''Renovation of the Method in Assessing the Heritage'', 1994 * ''Praxeology of philosophy-I. Philosophy and Translation'', 1994 * ''Language and Balance, or Multiplicity of Reason'', 1998 * ''Praxeology of Philosophy-II. 1-The Philosophical sentence, the book of the Concept and etymology'', 1999 * ''The question of Ethics – a contribution to Ethical criticism of Western Modernity'', 2000 * ''Dialogues for the Future'', 2000 * ''The Arabic Right to differ in Philosophy'', 2002 * ''The Islamic Right to be Intellectually Different'', 2005 * ''The Spirit of Modernity, an Introduction to founding Islamic Modernity'', 2006 * ''Modernity and Resistance'', 2007 * ''The Question of Practice'', 2012 * ''The Spirit of Religion'', 2012 * ''Dialogue as Horizon of Thought'', 2013 * ''The Poverty of secularism'', 2014 * ''The Question of Method: Toward a New paradigm in thinking'', 2015 * ''The Post-Secularism: A Critique of the separation between Ethics and Religion'', 2016 * ''The Wandering of The Post-Secularism'', 2016 * ''The Religion of Decency'', 2017 * ''Ethical Concepts between Fiduciarism and Secularism'', 2 volumes, 2021. * ''Fuduciarist Foundation of the science of purposes'', 2022.

References

Sources

*Arabic Wikipedia *Wisdom Forum for Thinkers and Researchers *Mohammed Hashas, "Islamic Philosophy III: The Question of Ethics: Taha Abderrahmane's Praxeology and Trusteeship Paradigm," Resetdoc, 23 Sept. 2014, http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000022452 *Mohammed Hashas, “Taha Abderrahmane’s Trusteeship Paradigm: Spiritual Modernity and the Islamic Contribution to the Formation of a Renewed Universal Civilization of Ethos,” Oriente Moderno 95 (2015), pp. 67–105. *Mohammed Hashas, L’etica islamica nel paradigma di responsabilità di Taha Abderrahmane, traduzione a cura di Sabrina Lei (Roma: Tawasul Europe, Centro per la ricerca ed il dialogo, 2018), 53 p. *Mohammed Hashas
The Idea of European Islam: Religion, Ethics, Politics and Perpetual Modernity
(London and New York: Routledge, 2019), Chapters 6-7. *Wael Hallaq
Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha
Columbia University Press, 2019, 376p. . *Mohammed Hashas and Mutaz al-Khatib, eds.
Islamic Ethics and the Trusteeship Paradigm: Taha Abderrahmane's Philosophy in Comparative Perspectives
(Leiden: Brill, 2020) pp. 382. . *Mohammed Hashas, “The Arab Right to Philosophical Difference: The Concept of the Awakened Youth in the Political Philosophy of Taha Abderrahmane,” in Islam in International Affairs: Politics and Paradigms, eds. Nassef Manabilang Adiong, Raffaele Mauriello, and Deina Abdelkader (Routledge, Wordling beyond the West book series, 2019) pp. 39–61
ISBN 9781138200937
*Mohammed Hashas, "The Political Theology of Taha Abderrahmane: Religion, Secularism, and Trusteeship,” in Islamic Political Theology, eds., Massimo Campanini and Marco di Donato (New York and London: Lexington Books, 2021), pp. 113–133
ISBN 978-1-4985-9058-7
*Yousef AlQurashi
"Is Taha Abdurrahman a Contractarian Philosopher?
, journal of Islamic Research 33 (3), 704-721 , DOI: 10.17613/ngj0-4b06.

External links

* Samir Abouzaoid

arabphilosophers.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdurrahman, Taha Muslim reformers 20th-century Moroccan philosophers 21st-century Moroccan philosophers Islamic philosophers Mohammed V University alumni Academic staff of Mohammed V University Living people 1944 births International Union of Muslim Scholars members