New Philosophy Books in Arabic
1."The
Epistemological and the Ideological in Contemporary Arabic Thought",
Center of Arabic Unity, Research and Discussions of the symposium
organized by the center (Nov. 2010).
The dialectic of the
epistemological and the ideological in contemporary Arabic thought is
not a simple one in a way that the reader can follow its working out
easily, rather, it is a complex one. Consequently, it requires a
synthetic reading that makes use of several methodologies and tools in
order to unfold its relations and coherences. Such a stress on the
synthetic nature of such dialectic is what has been present strongly in
this book in parallel to the careful attention to deconstruct the formal
view to each of the epistemology and ideology.
The importance of this
problematic in contemporary Arabic thought is what stimulated the center
of Arabic unity to organize a symposium on the topic, that studies the
different appearances of the topic, uncovers the lines of connections,
and brings to the fore of our consciousness the different forms of the
working out of such a problematic.
This book/symposium has dealt with the
problematic of the epistemological and ideological in contemporary
Arabic thought through different disciplines that included: definition
of the problematic, sociological formulation, heritage studies,
historical studies, economical studies, studies of contemporary Arabic
as well as Western thought, and finally contemporary Arabic studies of
Orientalism.
The Publisher
2."Mohammad Arkoun: the
Thinker, Researcher and Humanist", a round table discussion, Dr. Abel-Elah
Belqaziz (ed.), Center for Arabic Unity,
Beirut, Feb 2011, (166 P.).
Mohammad
Arkoun (1928 – 2010) has founded the "Applied Islamics" as an
Intellectual project that responds to three basic and interconnected
epistemological needs in the field of Islamic studies: 1) Covering the
need to found an independent scientific discipline which he calls, 'the
science of Islam' or 'Islamics'; 2) Covering the need to pass the
epistemological and methodological horizon at which Orientalism has
stopped; 3) Supporting researchers with new scientific tools in 'Islamics'
through opening up of researches in this field on the scientific
revolution that social and human sciences has achieved during the second
half of the twentieth century.
Such a mission of Arkoun has been represented in: 1) Rewriting the history of Islamic thought in a critical and analytic manner that purports to uncover the knowledge system that govern such a thought; 2) Critique of Islamic thought through deconstructing its controlling and deterring dogmatic frames; 3) Resurrecting the rational and humanist side of the Islamic heritage that have been for long ignored and marginalized; 4) Throwing strong lights on the need to reconsider the position of the imagined, myths, metaphor, and the surprising to culture and thought in the history of Islam; 5) Recourse to the era of the beginnings of Islam and re-read of its founding text (the Holy Qur'an) in a new epistemological and methodological light; 6) The repeated call for the necessity to break with the reductive view to Islamic heritage which limits it within the written intellectual and cultural expression, and founding a new overall view that fuses all the oral and written expressions in the heritage, using it a material for study, reading and historicizing.
The Publisher
3."Historicism and Modernism - A Study of Abdallah Laroui's Works", Abdussalam Benabdelaly, Tobqal publishing, 2010.
This
last book of
Abdussalam Benabdelaly
introduces possibilities to question Laroui's accumulating and ramified
proposals since (1967). For it introduces studies that cover the most
important junctions of Laroui's thought, in addition to his different
essential types of writing (his theoretical works, his Vitae, his
translations of his works). It is a reading, and for every reading 'its
own eye of reading', as Derrida says. Benabdelaly's reading of
Laroui goes into two directions: acknowledging Laroui's effort to
confront the question of Modernism, as it is introduced since more than
a century. From another side, in the direction of uncovering a hidden
philosophy behind Laroui's proposals, his concentrated evasive language,
as well as his declarations that undermines the value of philosophy.
Abuallah Ba'aly
4. "The Philosophical Inquiry and the Routs of its Unlocking - Arabic Thought Construal of Modernism and Postmodernism", Abdulrazzaq Bel'aqrouz, The Arabic Home for Sciences Publishers, April 2010.
In
this book the author tries to shed lights on what contemporary Arabic
thought has been occupied with. Had such thought introduced a project or
it has been merely replicating the Western philosophical concepts. The
author concedes that most of the concepts that are being used in the
fields of the Arabic philosophical knowledge are pale concepts that lack
liveliness. Consequently it doesn't leave any effect on our culture and
hence doesn't help the Arabic will to get rid of its weaknesses
exemplified in recapitulating the past philosophical narratives.
Therefore, the author concludes that unless we participate in efforts of
reconstructing our own philosophical concepts or assimilate and
reproduce the received concepts, we will not be able to be faithful to
the original mission of the philosopher.
The Publisher
5. "Value Conflict Between Islam and the West", by Radwan Zyadah and Kevin J O'Toole - Dar Elfikr, Damascus, 2010.
The
Book is a part of a new series launched by Dar Elfikr under the title of
"A Dialogue with the West". In the first part Radwan Zyadah discusses
the meaning of 'Values' from the linguistic angel, and explicates how
the Arabs understood 'Values', what does it mean for them, how it was
formed, and why it has been classified as religious, political,
economic, social and aesthetic
values. Afterwards he continues to present a review of the
philosophical views of the problems of values, its normative status, and
whether its is relative or universal. In the second part, which is
written by Kevin O'Toole, studies the difference in values between the
Muslim and the Western person. He returns to the definition of the
'Muslim Person' in the principles of the "Organization of the Islamic
Conference", and to the definition of the 'Western Person' in the
principles of the European Union. Afterwards he excavates in history in
order to locate the time at which the interaction between Islam and the
West started, what it has produced, and the results of such a struggle.
The Publisher
6. The Arabic translation of "Philosophy The School of Freedom", issued by the UNISCO, on 26 May 2010.
How philosophy is being taut in today's world? to answer such a question the Arabic translation of the book 'Philosophy the School of Freedom" has been issued within the program of the prince Sultan ben Abdulaziz Al So'ud to foster using Arabic language in the UNISCO. The book is a research about teaching the subject of philosophy in schools, faculties and colleges today.
7. "Interests and Fates - The Manufacturing of a Common Life", by Ali Harb, The Arabic House for sciences Publishers, Beirut, March 2010, 199 Pges.
Book Description:
In this book the author introduces a trial to approach the contemporary international crisis with its numerous names and domains, through dealing with issues and problematic related to the different manifestations of existence, such as modernity and democracy, security and freedom, fundamentalism and identity, or cooperation and development, in addition to an important issue which became at at utmost priority that is common life: how it could be made, constructed or managed and practiced? this is the question: How could we drive our mutual concerns?
The book is composed of three parts and a conclusion as follows:
The first part titled: 'Defects and Malfunctioning', the second part titled: 'Stakes of Modernity'; The third part titled: 'Manufacturing Development'; and finally a conclusion titled: 'Questions of Fates' which discusses the central theme of the book
The publisher
8. "Science and the Arabic Worldview - the Arabic practice and the scientific foundation of the renaissance", by Samir Abuzaid, Center for Arabic Unity, Beirut, October 2009.
(Front material) (Review- in arabic)
Book Description:
The author starts by wondering is there what we can call the "The Arabic Worldview"? Then he formulates the problematic of the book in another way: he states that the real barrier for the modern and contemporary Arabic societies is the "Worldview of such societies", and he sees that the existence of such a barrier necessitates 'Re-foundation' of contemporary science into such a worldview. With this general view, he deals with both sides of the issue: science, from one side, and the Arabic worldview, form the other. Consequently, he reformulates the essence of the scientific thought, which we hope to found in the society, from one side, and reformulates the essence of the worldview of the society as well as its relation to science, from the other.
In order to fulfill such an aim the author introduces the concept of 'Consistency' as the central concept in the 'Worldview'. If every human being, or every culture' possess a worldview, then its basic trait is its consistency with itself and with the real world. Hence, the success of the ancient Arab/Islamic civilization and its wide propagation in the ancient world is due to its consistency with itself and with the world.
The author afterwards introduces his suggestion of the methodology to achieve such a consistency while dealing with contemporary scientific problems. He proposes to depend on what he calls the 'separation – connection' methodology. In order to formulate such a methodology he suggests that we depend on a model from the Arab/Islamic heritage that exemplifies such a methodology. Such a model should possess three basic traits: to be a scientific model, to depend on a probabilistic view of induction, and not to endorse the complete subject/object separation. The application which the author introduces as a model is the method of 'separation – connection' of Abdulqaher Aljurjani, which is based on three basic steps: (1) Constructing both the religious and the scientific problems, each within its domain; (2) Separating the two problems each within its domain; (3) Constructing a binding relation between the two problems. In Aljurjani's case, such a binding relation was that the linguistic ability could increase without limit.
The final result is that the dependence on the 'separation – connection' methodology, in addition to the positive participation in the process of formulation of the new scientific paradigm, as well as participating in the formulation of the new laws of nature in its different levels; all of this leads at the end to solve the problem of consistency and introducing a new solution to the problematic of the human sciences and its re-foundation.
Center for Arabic Unity Studies
9. "The Crisis of the Unsettled Arabic Civilization", by Abu Ya'rub Almarzouqi, The Arabic home for sciences publishers, Oct. 10, 2009.
General Description:
The
author, who is specialized in the Arabic, German, and ancient Greek
philosophy, purports to present an overall presentation of the current
crisis of the our Arabic civilization, and to dig deeply into its roots.
In his view, such a crisis is still critical, not only for Arabs and
Muslims, but it extends to cover the whole humanity. He tries to
understand such a contemporary situation through analyzing its far
reasons in the Arab/Islamic history. He analyzes the works presented by
four major thinkers who dealt with the viability of the Arab/Islamic
civilization from the point of view of the Islamic philosophy of history
and philosophy of religion. Those thinkers are Al-Ghazali and Ibn Rush
who represent the limit of the theoretical position, and Ibn Taymia and
Ibn Khaldoun who represent the practical position.
Alhayat newspaper
10. "Writing With Two Hands" - Abdussalam Benabdelaly, Tobqal publishing, 2009, 104 pages.
General Description:
The Moroccan thinker Abussalam Ben Abdelaly continues in his new book "writing with two hands" his silent philosophical excavations in the matters of thought, concepts and texts, and in the mechanisms of production, critique, evaluation and judgment on which cultural practice rely. To the extent that he makes from such excavations a space through which metaphysics enters and mythology flourishes, which renders reality closer to imagination, and systems of reality connected to a complex mesh of control and direction. It is the theater of the ideas, practices, forms of evaluation and types of construction, behind which Benabdelaly tries to uncover the forms of formation of the cultural and the political in the age of technology and the industry of the media. A picture that highlights the introduction of new agents in the space of the symbolic authority. (Nabil Minsar, Alhayat Newspaper).
11. "Philosophy of Right of Habermas", group of researchers M. Elmesbahy (ed.), Rabat, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences Publications, April, 2009.
General Description:
The papers presented in this book has attracted attention to the works of habermas which has been a fruit of his open philosophical discussion with his colleagues of philosophers, law men, anthropologists, etc, regarding new inquiries that represented real challenges. Researchers, who belong to different specializations, introduced several philosophical issues that have been investigated by the German philosopher, such as Biological Ethics, the idea of the eternal peace in his dialogue with Kant, the nature of humanity, State of Right, the theory of communicative action, unity of philosophy and plurality of values, his investigation of the legitimacy of the civil disobedience, and finally, the right of equality and the cultural difference.
M. Elmesbahy
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