Civilization (An Analysis of the Ideas of Seyyed Hossein Nasr)

Traditionalism is an intellectual movement in the critique of modernity that was founded by René  Guénon, a French philosopher (1886-1951) and was conceptually formulated by Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) and emerged as an important contemporary intellectual vement through the studies of Fritijf Schwan, Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings, and Dr. Seyyed Hosein Nasr. Traditionalists have paid attention to the relationship between tradition and religion with modernity, but unlike some intellectuals and religious innovators, they do not think of a combined and selective approach in order to adapt tradition and religion to modernity, and they consider the solution to the crises of modern man to be a return to traditional principles. The most significant narrative of traditionalism in contemporary Islamic culture can be found in the works and thoughts of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Due to his special understanding of the relationship between philosophy and culture in Islamic civilization, he tries to criticize Western modernity and the new philosophy associated with it .by relying on the tradition of .Islamic philosophy and the traditionalist narrative he presents
Keyword: Islamic culture, Islamic philosophy, modernity, Western philosophy, traditionalism
Introduction
Traditionalism can be considered a type of theorizing about tradition that at the same time considers tradition in a completely positive sense and believes that a better future for humanity can be drawn through the renewal (revival) of tradition. Tradition, which in the terminology of traditionalists should be written with a capital letter (Tradition) in European languages ​​and used in languages ​​such as Persian and Arabic with descriptions such as "Eternal tradition" does not have much in common with the conventional understanding of the term "Tradition". After being influenced by a lecture by the English philosopher Bertrand Russell and his dissatisfaction with physics, he turned to philosophy and history of science, and in this field he received a doctorate from Harvard University in 1958. The title of his thesis was "Concepts of Nature in Islamic Thought in the Fourth Century AH: A Study of the Concepts of Nature and the Methods Used in Its Study by the  Ikhwân al-Safâ' or “Brethren of Purity”, Al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina," After becoming acquainted with this stream of thought, and especially with the serious study of Rene Guenon's works, Nasr became acquainted with the works of Coomaraswamy, an art historian and philosopher, Fritijb Schwann (1891-1901), Titus Burckhardt and Martin Lings .
The central question of this paper is: From the perspective of the traditionalist approach what icture of the relations between philosophy and culture in Islamic civilization can b ؟formulated
Materials & methods
Our method in this paper is a qualitative method and we have tried to use a combination of hermeneutic and analytical methods. The hermeneutic tradition before Heidegger has been called textual hermeneutics or pre-philosophical hermeneutics. In the hermeneutic method of the likes of Cladinus, Schleiermacher, and Dilthey, a very important point is that they, like their predecessors, believe in the possibility of objective understanding of the text; that is, they consider understanding the true intention and meaning of the speaker to be possible and accessible, and they believe in the possibility of the interpreter's understanding corresponding to the true meaning of the text. This point is one of the aspects of their difference from .philosophical hermeneutic
Discussion & Result
Dr. Nasr examines the pathology of the Islamic world's encounter with new Western philosophies, stating that on the one hand, there is a superficial fascination with Western philosophical currents and on the other hand, there is a lack of knowledge of the valuable heritage of Islamic philosophy. Depending on which Western geographical current is the source of transmission of those ideas, the face of philosophical thought is distinguished, without paying the slightest attention to and connection with the ecosystem of Islamic culture and the concrete issues of Islamic societies of our time: "Today, in most Islamic countries, especially in academic circles, philosophical thoughts that originated in the West and have flourished there are studied with great interest. These thoughts are taught in classes and students absorb them to the extent that most of those who are nurtured by the new educational system are much more familiar with a second-rate European thinker than with the greatest Islamic sages. Moreover, this expansion of the influence of European philosophy in Academic circles in Islamic countries are by no means the same. The dispersion, contradiction, and lack of coordination that are characteristics of modern European civilization, especially in the field of philosophy, have also been reflected in modern circles of the East. In this matter, historical events and factors are the criteria for the type of .philosophical thoughts that have developed and expanded in each country
conclusion
According to an analysis of Nasr's philosophical Ideas, he considers Islamic philosophy to be richer in metaphysics than Western philosophy. Although the discussion and method of rejecting metaphysics and doubting the origin that is seen in Western philosophy have appeared less in Islamic philosophy, on the other hand, the discussion of the imaginary world, which was raised in Iranian philosophy by Ibn Arabi and before him by suhrawardī, and was greatly developed by Mulla Sadra, has not been given much attention in Western philosophy and has entered Western philosophical literature with the efforts of Henry Corbin. Nasr sees the fundamental difference between contemporary Islamic philosophy and Western philosophy in the fact that Europeans have studied their philosophical tradition very carefully and systematically. However, there are far more obscure and dark spots in the history of Islamic philosophy than in Western philosophy, while the works of great Western philosophers such as Kant, HegelSchopenhauer, Descartes, and the Cartesian school have all been published, discussed, and analyzed in detail, and have even been translated into various languages. The criticisms and studies that have emerged from these works have themselves made enormous resources available to everyone for philosophical study