This conference explores various aspects of the reception of Heidegger in the Arabic, Iranian, and Turkish intellectual context. The keynote lectures and papers introduce and discuss approaches to Heidegger’s philosophy that operationalize, recontextualize, or review it critically in the light of Islamic and Islamicate traditions.
Film Screening and Discussion
The documentary movie The Fabulous Life and Thought of Ahmad Fardid, co-directed by Hamed Yousefi and brought to us by its author and co-director Ali Mirsepassi, offers profound insights into the life and thought of one key figure of the Iranian intellectual discourse: Ahmad Fardid (about 1910-1994) often labeled as the first Iranian ‘Heideggerian’. Starting from the 1950s, Fardid drew on Heidegger‘s thought in order to interpret and – after the 1979 revolution – reshape Iran’s intellectual and sociocultural situation. In this endeavour, Fardid valued Heidegger’s philosophy as a possible means to reconnect with the ‘authentic’ intellectual tradition including religion and to leave behind the non-authentic state of ‘west-toxification’ (gharbzadegi) meaning literally struck or befallen by the West. The movie documents Fardid’s continous engagement with Heidegger for the sake of ‘authenticity’ in Iran. By so doing, it also paints a vivid picture of the intellectual, ideological and political climate of the country, allowing a deeper understanding of many twists and turns of Iran’s more recent history.
Ali Mirsepassi is professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and Sociology and director of Iranian Studies Initiative at New York University. In his numerous publications on Iranian political thought in the 20th century, he has highlighted the important role of the reception of Martin Heidegger’s philosophy for the intellectual life and history of Iranian society before and after the 1979 revolution. The script of the documentary movie is based on Mirsepassi’s latest book Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Thought of Ahmad Fardid, Cambridge University press, forthcoming, fall 2016.
Entrance is free, previous sign up is not required. This event is part of the international conference Heidegger in the Islamicate World.
Cf. for more information: www.islam.unibe.ch and HeideggerConferenceBern@gmail.com.
