Ahmad Fardid
Encyclopedia
Yazd
Yazd is the capital of Yazd Province in Iran, and a centre of Zoroastrian culture. The city is located some 175 miles southeast of Isfahan. At the 2006 census, the population was 423,006, in 114,716 families....
– 16 August 1994, Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
) was a prominent Iranian
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
philosopher and an inspiring and dedicated professor of Tehran University. He is considered to be among the ideologues of the Islamic government of Iran which came to power in 1979. Fardid was under the influence of Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
, the influential German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
philosopher.
Fardid studied philosophy at Tehran University, Sorbonne university and University of Heidelberg. The sparsity of Fardid’s written work has led to his recognition as an "oral philosopher". This was, to be sure a puzzling attribute. Although Fardid tried to justify his expository reluctance to the poverty and contamination of the language, (in the Heideggerian sense) some suspect his reticence stemmed from his paralyzing perfectionism. His predicament calls resemblance to Efimov, a character in Dostoyevsky's unfinished novel "Netochka Nezvanova" in which the protagonist, a violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
performer, having had a brush with the sublime majesty of pure art abandons his musical instrument for good.
Fardid coined the concept of "Westoxication" which was then popularized by Jalal Al-e-Ahmad
Jalal Al-e-Ahmad
Jalal Al-e-Ahmad was a prominent Iranian writer, thinker, and social and political critic.-Personal life:...
on his then widely-known book Gharbzadegi
Gharbzadegi
Gharbzadegi is a pejorative Persian term variously translated as "Westoxification," "West-struck-ness" "Westitis", "Euromania", or "Occidentosis"...
, and after the Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
of 1979, became among the core ideological teachings of the new Islamic government of Iran.
Fardid's turbulent intellect was absorbed in the enterprise of synthesizing (promisingly or otherwise) the results of his studies of Eastern civilizations with the Western philosophy, as interpreted by Heidegger. Fardid's project remains unfinished and fraught with shortcomings and errors. Nevertheless, it remains an enormously intriguing and valuable endeavor. Heidegger himself on several occasions (including in his encounters with DT Suzuki concerning "transmetaphysical thinking" and in his valedictory interview with Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
) optimistically alluded to the possibility of a convergence of Eastern and Western thought but he never explored the subject matter himself, citing a lack of knowledge and insight about the non-Western universe of discourse. Ahmad Fardid, from his corner, hoped to produce a blueprint for the endeavor, but he only succeeded in vaguely adumbrating certain contours of it.
Criticisms
Ahmad Fardid has been widely denounced by prominent Iranian intellectuals such as Abdolkarim SoroushAbdolkarim Soroush
Abdolkarim Soroush , born Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh , is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor at the University of Tehran. He is arguably the most influential figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the...
and Dariush Ashuri as a total fraud. Fardid rejected Human Rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
declaring it a Western notion, and an instance of "Westoxication"
Gharbzadegi
Gharbzadegi is a pejorative Persian term variously translated as "Westoxification," "West-struck-ness" "Westitis", "Euromania", or "Occidentosis"...
. Fardid often instructed his disciples, many of whom later became among the ruling clique of the Islamic government of Iran, to disregard such "westoxicated" concepts as democracy, civil rights, and tolerance, and instead to return to their "authentic Oriental self". Fardid was also a conspiracy theorist and an avid anti-Semite.
Abdee Kalantari has described Fardid as "a terrorist with 'philosophical' gloves". Introducing Dariush Ashuri's famous exposé documenting Fardid's fraudulent scholarship, and the horrendous consequences of his anti-west, nativist views and teachings, Kalantari wrote:
Those who remember the little clownish figure of Fardid on TV (Beyond the West and the East), with his stern but funny gestures and incomprehensive phrases, would enjoy the debunking of the ‘depth’ of this cartoon figure. But when they reach the final pages, blood is everywhere! They will be touched by an apt comparison and contrast with Sadegh Hedayat, whose gentle countenance lies silently next to the cold, pale, sleeping figures of all those murdered writers in morgue; all the victims who saw through the Oriental spirituality and anti-modern postures. Reminiscent of the work of Aramesh DustdarAramesh DoustdarAramesh Dustdar is an Iranian philosopher, writer, scholar and a former philosophy lecturer at Tehran University.Dustdar received a PhD degree in philosophy from University of Bonn. He is known in Iran as a secular Heideggerian philosopher .- External links : **...
thirty years ago, here Mr. Ashouri points his finger at, and then stirs some, the swamp. Fardid is dead but little Fardids are all around us. And not just of religious stripe. They come in all varieties: secular, left, right, liberal …When will this cycle end?