| چکیده انگلیسی مقاله |
Addressing people in a new sense, which implies determining their position and role in the political, economic, cultural, and social arenas, emerged and manifested differently in the face of the new Western civilization. The new understanding of the status, role, and changing concepts (from subject to citizen) first became actualized in the perspective of intellectuals, and they engaged in new reflections in this field based on their intellectual origins. One of the intellectuals who has written thoughtful writings on this subject is Mohammad Ali Foroughi. He was able to explain his ideas well in a systematic thought process. The main issue of this research, which can be clarified in the form of two research questions, is: 1) What is the role of people in Foroughi's thought? and 2) How and with what approach does Foroughi explain the role of people? The results of the research show that Foroughi, by basing his work on liberalism and capitalism (interpretive and translational) and bypassing religious thought and socialism, presents his preferred perspective in which people are the legitimizing element of the political system. Keywords: Foroughi, People, Liberalism, Socialism, Religion. Introduction The evolution of the position of people in Iranian-Islamic thought and its trend up to the present era is one of the important issues in Iranian history. With the encounter of Iranian society with the modern world in the 19th century and the emergence of a group called intellectuals, this issue received more attention, and from a marginal point, it became a focal and central point in theory. Intellectuals’ understanding of people’s place in the Iranian society has been influenced by various factors; the two main schools of modern society, socialism and liberalism, seem to be among the most important of these factors. This influence is so great that Iranian intellectuals can be divided into two groups influenced by socialism and liberalism. In addition to these two factors, other factors such as religion and the bearers of religious thought, the tradition of political thought in Iranian society, and the political, social, and cultural situation prevailing in the society have also had an impact on intellectuals’ understanding of people’s position. As one of Iran’s controversial intellectuals, Foroughi, like many other intellectuals, has made the concept of people a recurring keyword in his ideas. If we consider him one of the first translators and originators of the theory of liberalism and capitalism in Iran, it must be said that he tried to explain the position of people by describing and interpreting these two schools of thought and bypassing socialism and religious thought. The German travel writer Blucher, who met Foroughi, believes that Foroughi had penetrated the depths of European wisdom and philosophy and saw it as his mission to serve as an intermediary to make this world available to his compatriots (Blucher, 1990, p. 230). This is an issue that Karim Mojtahedi and some of Foroughi’s critics, such as Zarshenas, also confirm (Mojtahedi, 2015, p. 322; Zarshenas, 2008, p. 70). By describing liberalism in the political and social realm and capitalism in the economic realm, Foroughi defines various rights for people, including the right to vote, legitimacy, freedom, equality, and determining the extent of government intervention. Within this intellectual framework, he tries to be less influenced by the intellectual tradition of the Iranian society and existing conditions. From this perspective, Jahanbegloo considers Foroughi’s faith and belief in modern values and scientific rationality to be absolute (Jahanbegloo, 2001, p. 111); although this issue is controversial, it is ultimately verifiable and has been addressed in this research. Materials and Methods Given that the present research is descriptive-exploratory, it cannot be expected to state a hypothesis; therefore, in this fundamental research, an attempt has been made to collect information using library and document studies to examine Foroughi’s views on the role and position of people by describing, analyzing, and comparing the data. According to the above explanations, this research, by collecting historical and theoretical data attributed to Foroughi, aims to explain the position of people. Its formulation will be as follows: The central elements of Foroughi's thought, namely liberalism and capitalism, are examined in the historical and social context of the Iranian society. The position of people in his thought will be discussed in terms of the constitution, political rights, economic rights, the right to freedom, and the right to equality. In the final section and conclusion, the extent of Foroughi’s loyalty to liberalism and capitalism and their role in the formation of his thought will be shown. Research Findings In discussing people and their status, Foroughi mentions freedom, voting rights, equality, and economic rights of people in various areas, and refers to them as the legitimizing element of the political system. A noteworthy point regarding the position of people in Foroughi’s thought is the extensive treatment of freedom as the basis and foundation of other people’s rights, which itself stems from Foroughi’s liberal thought and his attention to indirect democracy (representative system). Foroughi also views the relationship between the position of people and the law and the limits of government intervention from the perspective of liberalism, and defends liberalism in this area in restoring people’s rights. He is also completely loyal to capitalism when it comes to discussing people's economic rights and considers it a suitable path for restoring people’s rights. Discussion of Results and Conclusions The issue of this research is to examine the position of people in Foroughi’s thought as one of the intellectuals of the late Qajar dynasty and the early Pahlavi dynasty. Although there are abundant and sometimes contradictory studies about Foroughi, especially in the field of his political and social activism, the issue of this research is a purely theoretical and intellectual debate on which there seems to be more agreement in various studies. The influence of modernity on Iranian intellectuals from the 19th century to the present era is a definitive finding that is also accepted by this intellectual spectrum in the Iranian society. Although the type of exposure and influence may vary under the influence of various factors, Western civilization and its theories have shaped the ideological framework of Iranian intellectuals. Foroughi, as one of the Iranian intellectuals, recognizes the West as a civilization and, based on human experience, he tries to enrich his audience with it as an intellectual model. In explaining his ideas, Foroughi is influenced by the two main schools of thought: liberalism and capitalism, and under the influence of these two factors, he has described and explained various theories. For further emphasis, he has criticized and negated the two rival schools of liberalism and capitalism in the traditional and modern worlds (i.e., Islam and socialism), respectively. That is, he has criticized Islam with a conservative approach and recklessly criticized and negated socialism in the modern world, and instead has openly defended liberalism and capitalism in various fields. Even Foroughi's time and the conditions of his society had very little impact on his intellectual thought in borrowing from liberalism and capitalism to explain his own desires. In this regard, Foroughi can be considered rare among Iranian intellectuals in this field. However, he is an intellectual whose intellectual system places much more emphasis on imitation and adherence to Western civilization than on Ijtihad and localizing this civilization to the specific conditions of the Iranian society. |