Aramesh Doostdar considers “lack of question” as the main difficulty of Iranian society, which has been dominated by a religious culture since the ancient time. In this paper, his views are assessed on the basis of postmodern observations. Richard Rorty speaks of two ac More
Aramesh Doostdar considers “lack of question” as the main difficulty of Iranian society, which has been dominated by a religious culture since the ancient time. In this paper, his views are assessed on the basis of postmodern observations. Richard Rorty speaks of two accounts of rationality: a broad account which he favours and a narrow one which he crticises and attributes to modern thinkers. The main question in this paper is that in which category Doostdar’s views can be classified? It seems that he advocates the narrow modernist account of rationality that considers whatever does not comply with it as outside reason. Doostdar’s metanarrative on Iranian culture is based on unjustified extrapolations that ignore the complexity of the culture. Since he believes that Islamic and Iranian culture lacks fundamental philosophical questions, he disregards all other types of questions raised in that culture. In politics, Doostdar argues that the relationship between religion and the state in Iran, since the Achaemenid Empire, constituted the religious culture in the society in such a way that any escape from it and transition towards a developed society would be impossible.
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