Behnam Medi
Abstract
In recent Iranian intellectual space, some thinkers of political thought and jurisprudence (in particular the late Dr. Davood Feirahi) have believed that Iran’s situation in Islamic world is similar to and comparable with England in Europe and Christian world. That's because Iran is a Muslim country ...
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In recent Iranian intellectual space, some thinkers of political thought and jurisprudence (in particular the late Dr. Davood Feirahi) have believed that Iran’s situation in Islamic world is similar to and comparable with England in Europe and Christian world. That's because Iran is a Muslim country yet at the same time a Shi'ite one and England in Europe is a Christian yet at the time an Anglican one. On the other hand, they have believed that the situation and the political project of John Locke in England is similar to and comparable with the situation and the political project of Allameh Mohammad Hossein Naeini in contemporary Iran. That's also because both of them tried to defend freedom and democracy on the basis of a religious ground, that means the holy text. And both of them had religious opponents (Sheiq Fazlollah Nuri and Robert Filmer). Therefore, the quarrel for democracy and freedom at the time of John Locke and Allameh Mohammad Hossein Naeini was a religious one. That means it was religion against religion, both authoritarianism and democracy was based on different accounts and interpretation of the hole text. Hence, in Iran Feirahi believed that secularism isn't our real problem but the problem is religious accounts of authoritarianism and democracy. He believed that the path of democracy passes through a democratic account of religion. Here, what he called as modern theology can make sense.The main concern of the present article is to evaluate this claim. Is Shi'ite Islam is comparable with Christianity and Anglicanism in particular? What are the differences? At least we know the Constitutionalism movement in Iran came to a different conclusion than the Constitutionalism movement. In Iran, only after two decades after the Constitutionalism revolution an authoritarianist government came to power and it can be said that Rezakhan destroyed democracy. The main subject of my essay is Law but not any kind of Law (Natural Law, Religious Law, etc.). It is only governmental law or human Law. What is created by man and in particular by a government. In order to evaluate the aforementioned claim and what people like Feirahi said I chose the concept of law and on the other hand I tried to study the concept in the context of the two important treatises of these two thinkers; the second treatise of John Locke on Government and Mohammad Hossein Naeini’s Tanbih o lommah va Tanzih o lmellah. It should be added that Law is very important for these two. Locke defines political power on the basis of Law. For Locke, that's Law which draws a distinction between a state of war and a political state. For Naeini, Law is an alternative for ismah (innocence) of imam at the time of qeibah (absence of imam).It should be noticed that Law in Iran was a goal that so many people had tried the achieve. One the main aims of the Constitutionalism revolution was to create Law and to limit and control the behavior of the governors on the basis of Law. So, the essay studied different aspects of the question of law in the project of those two thinkers (Naeini and Locke) and what the said in their most important treatises (Tanbih o lommah va Tanzih o lmellah of Mohammad Hossein Naeini and John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government). This study is a part of a wider research, which tried to find the basis of such comparison. My methodological approach in present essay is an interpretive-comparative one. That means that I tried to interpret both texts from the viewpoint of Law and after that and the same time I tried to compare the two texts. The present essay is divided in different parts. First, I studied the foundation of Law in the two treatises (a metaphorical one and a normative one). Then I wrote about the limitations of Law for Locke and Naeini. For Locke and Naeine there two different kinds of limitations. Locke limits Law by Natural Law or Natural Rights and the contents of the very basic contract between people and the governors. On the other side. Naeini limits Law by Shari'ah and the contents of the very basic contract between people and the governors. Then I talked about the Legislative Power (Parliament of Majlis). Here I studied the position of the the Legislative Power and its conditions. And in the end, I wrote about the goal or aim law, what Law tries to achieve. Here I pointed to the relations between public good and its relation with consent. In the final analysis, the present research shows that in spite of some similarities, there are fundamental differences between John Locke and Naeini, which cannot and should not be overlooked. I believed that the proponents of the claim are ignorant of the differences. Such ignorance twists our system of thinking more and creates more problems.
Behnam Medi
Abstract
How the government is formed is one of the important themes about the phenomenon of government. Yet more important is the issue of the dissolution of government. This paper studies the dissolution of government from the viewpoint of John Locke as one of the greatest political philosophers ...
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How the government is formed is one of the important themes about the phenomenon of government. Yet more important is the issue of the dissolution of government. This paper studies the dissolution of government from the viewpoint of John Locke as one of the greatest political philosophers in the modern world. The main research questions are, what are the foundations in Locke’s political theology that can explain the dissolution of government? and what conditions should be met in order to concede the possibility of the dissolution of government or confer on citizens the right to it? Locke believes that in the state of nature, human beings have rights as well as the ability to govern themselves. Human beings enter the political society with some rights, the most important of which is the right to judge the performance of rulers. Moreover, they have the right to dismiss or even penalize rulers whenever they do not fulfil their obligations, and if rulers go against the popular will, people can resort to force and revolution. For Locke, revolution is not the worst thing in politics but in the despotic politics. In Locke’s viewpoint, revolution is necessary to ensure rulers’ adherence to their obligations. More importantly, revolution is both the foundation of freedom and the greatest manifestation of humans’ self-government.
Mahdi Moradi Berelian; Ali Akbar Gorgi Azandariani
Abstract
This article aims to present a narrative of the modern state that has five essential elements without which there would be no modern conception of state. The abstract personality of the state, sovereignty, modern subjectivity, and the creation of a dedicated citizen, the expansion and manifestation of ...
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This article aims to present a narrative of the modern state that has five essential elements without which there would be no modern conception of state. The abstract personality of the state, sovereignty, modern subjectivity, and the creation of a dedicated citizen, the expansion and manifestation of sovereignty volition within the law are the foundations of the modern state. At the same time, this study examines earlier identities for a specific purpose in order to prove that despite the various challenges to these identities, they can still be sustained in the modern state. The text also seeks to point out in a disconcerting way in the current scientific discourse that some of the features listed for the modern state in these discourses are in fact due to the error of unification of the concepts of state and government. From the library sources and the application of a descriptive and analytical approach, the following questions are answered: (1) What are the features of the modern state conception? (2) Can government and state be regarded as identical phenomena? What are the outcomes of this synergy between the two for modern state concept (3) Despite challenges such as the formation of the European Union, human rights, postmodernism and globalization can still claim the viability and durability of modern state identities, and in particular the gem characteristic of sovereignty?
Seyed Ali Mahmoudi
Abstract
Civil disobedience in John Rawls’ theory of justice is protesting actions of citizens against some unjust laws and policy making in a democratic governments. The objective of such actions is reform and change on the basis of a constitution through rational and peaceful manners. Rawls relied on civil ...
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Civil disobedience in John Rawls’ theory of justice is protesting actions of citizens against some unjust laws and policy making in a democratic governments. The objective of such actions is reform and change on the basis of a constitution through rational and peaceful manners. Rawls relied on civil disobedience on the philosophical and moral foundation and, while justifying it on the basis of two principles of justice, discusses the role of this non-violent civil action. In his assessment, civil disobedience is justifiable as a legal and moral action, for this treatment confronts unjust, no efficient other lawful acts, and acceptance of some inevitable limitations. It is forming on the basis of expansion of liberties, rationality, and overlapping consensus. Hence Civil disobedience is a democratic movement and its objective is reform of some laws and structures; therefore it cannot be considered as militant actions. This research uses conceptual analysis and critical evaluation based upon analytic philosophy to explain and criticize the issue of civil disobedience in Rawls political philosophy. The outcome of this study is that Rawls’ thoughts as a means of defining and explaining the philosophical and ethical principles, as well as the precise drawing of civil disobedience boundaries from militant practices have the rational consistency and theoretical strength. Against this observation, his objective guidance and action in this regard are in some cases subject to ambiguities and shortcomings. Rawls does not follow a same method regarding such guidance.
