Rancière’s The Emancipated Spectator - Irfan Ajvazi.

Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason - Irfan Ajvazi.

An exploration (in Arabic) of the foundations of humans rights and the associated notion of human dignity. These include religious, rational-secular, as well as naturalistic foundations. Arguments are presented in support of naturalistic foundations, with reference to natural human needs and dispositions and 'moral sentiments'.

In the historical process, the importance of doing interdisciplinary work has been accepted in all social sciences and has become an undeniable phenomenon. The history of Islamic thought can undoubtedly be seen as a very fertile field for such a study. It is because many different disciplines start the historical formation process from the same point. In other words, they are historically constructed on a common narrative. In this respect, interdisciplinary reading can be most functional in the context of usûl-ı (...) fiqh, kalam, philosophy and mysticism, which can be expressed as the pillars of Islamic thought. In this framework, we have identified Ahmed Mahmûd Subhi, the Egyptian thinker and academician, as a prototype in our study. As a matter of fact, Subhi has an approach that stands out with a holistic perception of Islamic thought and has produced texts that can build the idea in question. We can build Subhî's way of thinking with a tradition he abides by or in a teacher-student relationship. What is needed for this is to take an in-depth look at his life and works. Such a study will serve as the key to our understanding of Subhi's scientific method. The ultimate aim of this study is to emphasize the importance of taking different disciplines as a basis in order to make healthy and correct interpretations of Islamic thought. This issue, which we have expressed as a claim, will be embodied by Subhî's ideas in his texts and turned into a concrete structure. (shrink)

This chapter (5) focuses on the concept of the forgiving God in Islamic religion and theology and claims that Islamic thinking about divine forgiveness accommodates two different views that emphasize two different attributes of God: justice and mercy. The first view is associated with a rationalist school of theology known as Mu'tazilism, while the second is associated with a fideistic school known as Ash'arism. The author argues that the first view, which is based on a strict calculus of desert, leaves (...) little or no room for mercy, and that the second view is more true to our ordinary notion of forgiveness. (shrink)

This paper delves into the enigmatic figure of Tom Bombadil in J.R.R. Tolkien’s \textit{The Lord of the Rings}, offering a fresh reinterpretation through the lens of Indian metaphysics. Bombadil’s detachment from the One Ring and his carefree existence suggest philosophical parallels with non-dual traditions, particularly Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism. By analyzing Bombadil alongside the concepts of the Avadhūta and \emph{jivanmukta}, this paper aligns his character with the Indian metaphysical notion of transcendence beyond dualism. -/- Moreover, Bombadil’s relationship with Goldberry (...) is interpreted as a reflection of the Shiva-Shakti dynamic from Kashmir Shaivism, representing the archetypal union of consciousness and energy. This paper further positions Bombadil as embodying pure, formless consciousness—a non-dual, attributeless aspect of Eru Ilúvatar. While acknowledging Tolkien's Catholic influences, this paper demonstrates that Bombadil's role resonates with universal themes of transcendence and consciousness, revealing his centrality as a figure that challenges the dualistic moral and metaphysical structures of Middle-earth. (shrink)

Reading Derrida Margins of Philosophy - Irfan Ajvazi.

Reading Deleuze's Proust and Signs -Irfan Ajvazi.

The Spectres of Hegel and Marx in the 21th Century -Irfan Ajvazi.

This paper aims at clarifying the role which the concept of 'divine sovereignty ' plays in the discussions which are taking place among Islamic thinkers (and others) concerning the possibility of democracy in an Islamic context. It argues that 'sovereignty ' has at least two meanings, one 'f'actual', the other 'normative'. The paper also argues that the second sense of 'sovereignty ' allows us to construe ta!k o{ 'divine sovereignty' as an attempt by Islamic thinkers to go beyond the merely (...) procedural views of democracy which focus on the familiar procedures o( power contestation, election and accountability. (shrink)

My aim is to argue that forgiveness may be conceived by analogy to healing. The analogy is not self-evident, but a number of subsidiary analogies will be seen to point in its direction, or so I will argue. In the course of the discussion we shall see how injustice (and wrong-doing) may be compared to physical injury (both change the state of the sufferer to the worse), and how the resentment caused by suffering injustice may be compared to the physical (...) pain caused by injury (both are aversive, action-motivating states). The analogies will be illustrated and supported by concrete examples, ultimately suggesting that, in an important sense, when we forgive, we actually heal. (shrink)

This paper is a discussion of the ways in which the notion of public reason has come to manifest itself in recent Islamic writings. The discussion is part of an effort to discover a common language in terms of which Islamic and liberal/secular discourses about democracy and public debate can be understood. The difficult question we are left with is whether it is permissible to speak of “public reason” sans phrase, or whether the notion must always be qualified by reference (...) to culture and religion. (shrink)

Reading Lyotard The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge - Irfan Ajvazi.

Nietzsche and the Nietzschean Philosophy of Morality - Irfan Ajvazi.

Descartes’ Discourse on Method - Irfan Ajvazi.

Reading Derrida’s Grammatology - Irfan Ajvazi.

This paper explores the positionality of war-ridden female characters in Leila Aboulela’s latest novel River Spirit through the theoretical perspectives of Cynthia Enloe, Fatima Mernissi, and Sara Ahmed. Set in 19th-century Sudan, the novel is a depiction of intricate circumstances women go through during times of war. This paper examines how gender, religion, and power dynamics intersect and determine feminine experiences. Drawing on Cynthia Enloe’s analysis of militarism, this paper examines how war intensifies patriarchal control and situates women in a (...) position that is pivotal yet peripheral to the war. Fatima Mernissi’s critique of patriarchal interpretations of Islam helps the paper frame the man-made religious and cultural engagements that suppress female agency. It also explores those moments of rebellion when women implement their will within these structures of subjugation. The work of Sara Ahmed on emotions and feminist killjoy provides an affective line to these war-torn experiences and allow one to predict how emotions of fear, defiance, and resilience would shape their actions and identities. This research shows how River Spirit not only represents the gendered impacts of war and religion but also demonstrates women’s agency against the interrelated forces of patriarchy, militarism, and religious orthodoxy. (shrink)

These three aspects of ideology form a kind of narrative. In the first stage of ideological doctrine we find ideology in its \"pure\" state. Here ideology takes the form of a supposedly truthful proposition or set of arguments which, in reality, conceal a vested interest. Locke’s arguments about government served the interest of the revolutionary Americans rather than the colonizing British. In a second step, a successful ideology takes on the material form which generates belief in that ideology, most potently (...) in the guise of Althusser’s State Apparatuses. (shrink)

Lucretius On the Nature of Things draws heavily on Epicurus’s ideas, translating them from Greek into Latin and putting them into his own poetic voice. It is therefore the best source we have for the ideas of [classical Epicurean philosophy]. The atomic model is not more than a representational model of the physical universe up to a certain level of magnification. Modern science dives much deeper than atoms and ends up with no matter at all.

Awais Khan’s literary excellence “In the Company of Strangers” revolves around the female characters, in which he engages in the complicated themes of relationships, social expectations, self-fulfilment, women empowerment, and feminist creation. Through his writings, having portrayed different age groups and social classes with great sensitivity, he presents his groundbreaking work as a vital platform to give extended voice to the featured stories that would ordinarily not be heard in mainstream anglophone Pakistani literature. Through the novel under analysis, the writer (...) reinforces the literary landscape of the country, adding the depth and complexity of stories that shine the light on the manifold diversities of women's experiences. By employing the idea of ‘gender’ proposed by Simon de Beauvoir and Judith Butler respectively, this paper aims to unmask the patterns of female self-drive and marks of domestic violence intricated in the structures of endocentric capitalism. (shrink)

Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus -Irfan Ajvazi.

The Philosophy of Ideology - Reading Althusser and Machiavelli Politically - Irfan Ajvazi.

The foundation of every society is the result of an arbitrary act: one of its parts takes control over the rest and (re)makes the world in its own image. Any sort of tribal, theocratic, feudal, political dimension in the history of our civilisation has indeed shaped reality according to its peculiar needs and aims, by means of a system of thought that could justify its permanence in time. The creation of artificial needs requires a distorted perception of inherent threshold values; (...) otherwise, Debord says, we wouldn't be the well-oiled cogs we're expected to be in the machinery of the system. The list of our natural needs is indeed quite short: only a few biological functions and a couple of psychophysical drives to be satisfied when necessary, such as sex and sociality. As a matter of fact, it doesn't take much for a human being to survive. Modern society can't afford to accept the concept of 'strictly necessary' though, not after its very existence became anachronistic and even threatening to a world ruled by the market-a world that needs buyers and consumers in order to survive. What Debord clearly points out is indeed the fake sense of freedom in our choices, the great lie presiding over our lives as consumers-a surrogate freedom that was bestowed upon us as yet another commodity. Even our dirtiest excesses are fed their daily fix of filth by the market; as long as our kinks imply some sort of purchase, we'll always find an industry willing to satisfy them. a use of the commodity arises that is sufficient unto itself; what this means for the consumer is an outpouring of religious zeal in honor of the commodity's sovereign freedom. waves of enthusiasm for particular products, fueled and boosted by the communications media, are propagated with lightning speed. a film sparks a fashion craze, or a magazine launches a chain of clubs that in turn spins off a line of products. the sheer fad item perfectly expresses the fact that, as the mass of commodities becomes more and more absurd, absurdity becomes a commodity in its own right... The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life. Not only is the relation to the commodity visible but it is all one sees: the world one sees is its world. Modern economic production extends its dictatorship extensively and intensively. In the least industrialized places, its reign is already attested by a few star commodities and by the imperialist domination imposed by regions which are ahead in the development of productivity. In the advanced regions, social space is invaded by a continuous superimposition of geological layers of commodities. At this point in the \"second industrial revolution,\" alienated consumption becomes for the masses a duty supplementary to alienated production. (shrink)

The results revealed that students who remained in China experienced challenges which included anxiety, closure of campuses, lockdown, their parents’ concern regarding health issues, and not being able to meet with friends. On the other hand, students who had left China during the pandemic were confined to their home countries. This group of students experienced more severe problems than the students who remained in China. Since the transition to home countries was “unplanned,” they were not ready to readjust to their (...) native culture and were vulnerable to severe reverse culture shock. Upon returning to their home countries, international students faced a number of challenges, including readjustment to their home countries and changes in their lives in host and home countries. In addition, they lost social and academic resources, such as the disruption of study environment, losing important group memberships, financial constraints, visa expiry, graduation delay, and academic suspension. (shrink)

Heidegger‘s What Is Metaphysics? - Irfan Ajvazi.

The Relevance of Saramago‘s Novel Blindness - Irfan Ajvazi.

The relationship between philosophy and logic is handled within the concomitant-the implicant (al-lazim-al-malzum) relationship in classical philosophy, and the existence of one of them is denied unless the other one exists. Despite such a strong relationship, it is seen that the subjects, concepts and issues of the science of logic are often implicitly included in the texts of philosophers. In this study, it has been discussed how the science of logic plays a role in the discussion of attributes, which is (...) a theological and philosophical issue. Divine attributes, as a sub-issue of the subject of tawhid, which is accepted as one of the fine matters of theology (Lataif-i kalam), have been handled and discussed by numerous thinkers in Islamic thought. Similarly, Ibn Rushd could not remain ignorant of this issue discussed by the tradition before him, and examined the subject on a new level and with a different approach. In this study, the way Ibn Rushd read the discussion of attributes has been limited only to the theory of common words. As a matter of fact, in this way, it has been shown that the relationship between logic and philosophy are two inseparable parts, and it is claimed that Ibn Rushd advocated a unique logic-based approach in the subject of attributes. Finally, the concepts of logic that Ibn Rushd used impliedly in the example of the issue of divine attributes were pointed out. (shrink)

This paper is a study of Conspiracy Theory, the theory according to which the causes which explain the occurrence of many events and phenomena are not the officially advertised causes which the public media present us with; rather, the events and phenomena in question should be viewed as the work of agents and agencies that operate in secret in the service of projects that may or not be publicly known. The paper discusses the relation between theory and evidence and compares (...) conspiracy theories to others, especially scientific theories. Two conclusions emerge. Firstly, a theory should not be rejected merely on the ground that it is a conspiracy theory. Secondly, most conspiracy theories do not deserve to be taken seriously because of the consequences which follow from their method of dealing with counter evidence. -/- يناقش هذا البحث نظرية المؤامرة من جوانبها المنطقية والمنهجية والابستمولوجية. ينتهي البحث الى هاتين النتيجتين.أولا، لا ينبغي رفض نظرية ما لمجرد كونها نظرية مؤامرة، فليس هناك من حيث المبدأ ما يمنع ان تكون نظرية ما من نظريات المؤامرة صادقة. ثانيا، ومع ذلك هناك بعض الاعتبارات التي تدعونا للتشكك في مصداقية الاغلبية الساحقة من نظريات المؤامرة المتداولة. تتعلق هذه الاعتبارات بالتبعات التي تترتب على طريقة نظريات المؤامرة في التعامل مع البينات المضادة. (shrink)

Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation - Irfan Ajvazi.

Deleuze's 'Difference and Repetition -Irfan Ajvazi.

Deleuze’s The Logic of Sense- Irfan Ajvazi.

Foucault’s Discipline and Punish- Irfan Ajvazi.

Freud‘s Id, Ego and Superego - Irfan Ajvazi.

Freud’s Interpretations of Dreams - Irfan Ajvazi.

Heidegger’s Being and Time - Irfan Ajvazi.

Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception - Irfan Ajvazi.

Ranciere's Aisthesis: Scenes from the Aesthetic Regime of Art -Irfan Ajvazi.

Reading Hegel‘s Science of Logic - Irfan Ajvazi.

Reading Ranciere's The Ignorant Schoolmaster - Irfan Ajvazi .

The Deconstruction of Philosophy : The Spectres of Jacques Derrida - Irfan Ajvazi.

Theory of Ideology and Historical Materialist Thoughts An Essay on Althusser and Lenin by Irfan Ajvazi.

The Philosophy of Hegel‘s Phenomenology of Spirit - Irfan Ajvazi.

What Lacan and Freud Did See ? - Irfan Ajvazi.

The object of this paper is to present and discuss the way democracy is conceived of by some prominent Islamic thinkers. Their position is that democracy, rightly understood, is simply a method of dispensing, sharing, and managing political authority, and as such does not imply secularism or other values and practices that are associated with liberalism. This paper is conceived of within a broader project to theorize the relations (actual and possible) between Islam, democracy, and modernity.

محاضرة القيت في المركز العربي للدراسات وابحاث السياسات (الدوحة/قطر) في العام 2018. تعرض المحاضرة لمفاهيم مختلفة حول عبور التخصصات وتحاول ان تبين من منها يمكن ان يؤخذ بجدية ومن منها لا يصمد امام الامتحان النقدي. ينتهي المحاضر الى القول بان هناك عبور للتخصصات بمعني او معاني تتسم بالبراءة ويمكن التعايش معها، كما ان هناك مفاهيم أخرى ليست واضحة المعنى، واخرى معادية لفكرة وجود تخصصات في المقام الأول. يحاجج المحاضر ان ليس هناك مبرر قوي للتنكر للتخصصات ولا لمحو الحدود بينها، وان (...) القول بخلاف ذلك ينم عن رؤية سطحية للنظرية العلمية وشروط امكان التوصل اليها. (shrink)