From Africa to Zen by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1318847
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2013-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

GUIDE TO FURTHER READING

Detailed bibliographical information can be found in JPR; History of Jewish Philosophy, edited by Frank and Leaman (1997); and in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by W. Craig (London: Routledge, 1999), in the entries on Jewish philosophy and philosophers.

7

Persian Philosophy

Homayoon Sepasi and Janet McCracken

When, with the discovery of “new worlds” and new “scientific” principles of government, modern Europeans began their own difficult investigations into the question of national character, the Persian legacy was well noted. Montesquieu, in his famous Persian Letters, has his character Pico explain, “[I]f [in Paris] someone chances to inform them that I was a Persian, I soon heard a murmur all around me: ‘Ah! Indeed! He is a Persian? How extraordinary! How can anyone be a Persian?’” Persian thinkers from the ninth to the twentieth centuries were far ahead of their European counterparts in the search for the foundation of their national character, and Persian culture since Islam still has a flavor uniquely its own, ironically distinguished in part by its very self-consciousness as a culture. To consider seriously the question of what it means to be Persian is our first goal in the following survey. Our hope is that these considerations may provoke yet another question: How can anyone be of any culture at all?

One often finds among thinkers more familiar in the West themes reminiscent of Persian thought; however, little attempt has yet been made in the United States or Europe to gather together all its disparate strands. In this essay, we will offer a brief (and we hope, tantalizing) overview of Persian thought over the whole course of its history. We believe that by reengaging our philosophical dialogue with Persia, we may better approach the questions of our common human experience, particularly the questions of culture and political tolerance that confront us today.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.