Alternative Paradigms The Impact of Islamic and Western Weltanschauungs on Political Theory

by Davutoglu, Ahmet

• ISBN13: 9780819190475
• ISBN10: 0819190470
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-12-09
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

Many scholars were convinced that the existing Western style of life, thought, and political institutions could easily be adapted to Muslim societies by bringing them into line with Islamic belief systems and rules. But after some experiences they were surprised when even intellectuals who had Western academic training remained deeply attached to Islam. In this book, Davutoglu develops a comparative analysis between Western and Islamic political theories and images. His argument contends that the conflicts and contrasts between Islamic and Western political thought originate from their philosophical, methodological, and theoretical background rather than mere institutional and historical differences. The questions of how and through which processes these alternative conceptions of the world affect political ideas via a set of axiological presuppositions are the crux of the book. Contents: Transliteration; Introduction; I. Theoretical Inquiries. Western Paradigm: Ontological Proximity; Islamic Paradigm: Tawhid and Ontological Differentiation; II. Political Consequences. Justification of the Socio-Political System: Cosmologico-Ontological Foundations; Legitimation of Political Authority: Epistemologico-Axiological Foundations; Power Theories and Pluralism; The Political Unit and the Universal Political System; Concluding Comparative Remarks.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	v
Transliteration	vii
Introduction	1	(8)
Focus of the problem	1	(2)
Problem of nomenclature and conceptual framework	3	(6)
Part I Theoretical Inquiries	9	(78)
Western Paradigm: Ontological Proximity	11	(36)
Ontological proximity and particularization of divinity	11	(23)
Epistemological particularization of truth: Secularization of knowledge	34	(5)
Axiological positivism: Secularization of life and law	39	(8)
Islamic Paradigm: Tawhid and Ontological Differentiation	47	(40)
Cosmologico-ontological unity and transcendency	49	(29)
Qur'anic base	49	(7)
Systematization of the paradigm	56	(22)
Epistemological unity of truth: Harmonization of knowledge	78	(4)
Axiological normativeness: Unity of life and law	82	(5)
Part II Political Consequences	87	(116)
Justification of the Socio-political System: Cosmologico-ontological Foundations	89	(22)
Western way of justification	89	(8)
Origin of the socio-political system	90	(6)
Aim of the socio-political system	96	(1)
Islamic way of justification	97	(14)
Origin of the socio-political system	98	(7)
Aim of the socio-political system	105	(6)
Legitimation of Political Authority: Epistemologico-axiological Foundations	111	(24)
Western way of legitimation	112	(11)
Epistemologico-axiological dimension	112	(4)
Prescriptivist dimension	116	(3)
Institutional dimension	119	(4)
Islamic way of legitimation	123	(12)
Epistemologico-axiological dimension	123	(3)
Prescriptivist dimension	126	(3)
Institutional dimension	129	(6)
Power Theories and Pluralism	135	(30)
Ontologically impenetrable justification of political power and Western socio-economic pluralism	135	(16)
Ontologically impenetrable political power	135	(6)
Social change/dynamism and the imagination of unilinear progress: Institutionalization of power	141	(1)
Phenomenological background of pluralism	142	(2)
Socio-economic pluralism: Basic parameter of socio-political differentiation	144	(4)
Philosophical background of pluralism	148	(3)
Ontologically justified political power and Islamic religious-cultural pluralism	151	(1)
Ontologically justified political power	151	(2)
Social balance/stability and imagination of circular evolution: Institutionalization of power	153	(5)
Religious-cultural pluralism: Basic parameter of socio-political differentiation	158	(7)
The Political Unit and the Universal Political System	165	(30)
Western multicompartmentalization: Nation-states	165	(14)
Etymology of nation-state	165	(1)
Historical legacy of the idea of state	166	(2)
Formation of the European nation-state system as the basis of political unity and the universal political system	168	(11)
Islamic bicompartmentalization: Dar al-Islam versus Dar al-Harb	179	(16)
Ummah as the basis of socio-political unity	180	(6)
Islamic bicompartmentalization as the universal political system	186	(4)
The concept of Islamic state (dawlah): Historical transformation of the institutionalization of political power	190	(5)
Concluding Comparative Remarks	195	(8)
References	203	(26)
Index	229