Persia and Philosophy

Jason Preu

As Victor Hugo says in Histoire d’un Crime: “One can resist the invasion of an army, but one cannot resist the invasion of ideas whose time has come.” The time of philosophical ideas have come in Iran. Today in Iran philosophy represents a window on Western culture, on an open society and on the idea of democracy. This is the reason why Habermas, Rorty, Ricoeur, Berlin and many others are relevant in Iran. Most of the intellectuals in Iran today are struggling against different forms of fundamentalism, fanaticism and orthodoxy. Habermas is considered the inheritor of the Frankfurt School’s intellectual tradition that from the very beginning questioned all orthodoxies and authoritarianisms.

Iran does not equal terror. To think otherwise is shallow. Sorta like voting for the potential life of a frozen embryo at the expense of the actual lives of sick people. Pro…life? (And yes, stem cells are promising.)

This just in! 450,000 without power in the STL. (Thanks, Bean.)

Persia and Philosophy

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