Research in Theoretical Politics
Year:2010 | Volume:- | Issue:7|Papers Count:7

In this paper, we focus on the relationship between ontology and political thought in Moslem philosophers’ views, especially in Iran.According to ancient philosophical systems, the ontological point of view is very important, and every intellectual argumentation, including political one, must be understood in the light of ontology.Islamic political philosophy consists in an idealism that rejects the political reality and opens new ideal horizons. This political idealism is based on the ontological foundations of Islamic philosophy; therefore, understanding Islamic political philosophy implies understanding its ontological and cosmological basis. This is important for the present article, especially in this point that according to Muslem philosophers an ideal political system should be of the same system as the whole cosmos. Discussing the basis of ideaism, the present paper, as a case study, aims to show that the Illuminationist philosophy of Suhrawadi has elaborated a new ontological system, based on the Light, and therefore, it can provide a new model for ideal politics.

In questioning the status of political philosophy among other fields of humanities, there would be many answers in different paradigms. In classical thoughts, with a normative view on human being and society, political philosophy lies under the category of practical philosophy. In this respect, it has a fixed correlation with ethics, and all its statements seem to be universal. But in modern era, the normative characteristic was seen as problematic, and political philosophy was reduced a power/security oriented realm. Protecting itself against the attacks of positivists, political philosophy abandoned its cliams of universality and normativity. In order to retain its existence and to affirm its utility, political philosophy appeared as a paradigm focusing on itself as its object. This is like what happened in the field of linguistics where language turned out to be its subject and object at the same time.Finally, “political entity can be effective and important in explaining the present status of political philosophy, and interprating its meaning.

Western epistemology, particularly representationalist epistemology, is the basic conviction behind Rorty's critical attacks. Rorty' s pragmatic approach aims to find explanations for political and ethical viwes of contemporary West. Such an approach is deeply rooted in teachings of linguistics, and descriptive approaches toward the formation of human’s understanding of entities. But in an atmosphere of theories, can Rorty be able to avoid meta-theoretical damages on the one hand, and normative views in the field of science, on the other hand.

The main purpose of this article is to find the relation between political implications of Sophocles's Antigone and "Athenian Democracy". To do so, we have used a structuralist approach the main feature of which is exploring binary oppositions in the text which in turn results in finding the oppositions within the political-social life that provides a ground for the creation of the text. From the point of view of political thought, the most prominent opposition in the tragedy of Antigone which creats a network of oppositions around itself, is the one drawn between "family"- with its values- and"political system" and the relationships among the citizenry. The importance of this opposition has been confirmed by Christian Meier, Jean Pierre Vernant, Charles Segal, and even Micheal Zelnak.It reveals a transition to the epoch of citizenry's relations. It also caused the confrontation between "unwritten divine laws" and "manmade written laws", the opposition that is the main focus of the present article.

National armies, and conscription are institutions that established by nation-state. Because the state’s claim on exclusive dominatation over and the legitimate use of force in a specific territory required formation of military institutions, i.e. national army, and conscription.This link was established through the legal- theoretical foundations of the state, i.e. national sovereignty, and nationalism. In this context, nation served as a source of human forces to military organizations, and conscription, which in turn helped strengthen and stabilize the modern state.

The main objective of the present article is to study the frequency and ways of representing features of national identity in A grade historical serials on television during the three decades after the Islamic Revolution (1359-1388).15 'A' grade historical serials, out of 50, produced and broadcasted through channels One and Two during the last three decades (5 serials per decade) were analised. The findings of the study shows that under the influence of media and culture policies, the representation of features of national identity has got an ideological status. Linguistic and imagery construction of TV in representing historical and political dimensions is based on creating a negative picture of Iranian historical and political heritage, neglecting national symbols such as national flag and anthem, and taking positive attitude towards historical figures of religious status.

Reviewing economic literature indicates that economists were emphasizing on economic factors as causes of economic instabilities until 1970s. But since then, political economists emerged who attributed economic instability to factors other than economic ones.Offering theories such as political business cycle, they tried to prove that political factors lead to economic instabilities. They offered opportunistic political business cycles and partisan political business cycles that respectively, attributed the economic instabilities to election, and to replacement of political parties. To elaborate this literature, the present article first focuses on these two kinds of political business cycles and tries to explain through which mechanisms political factors cause instabilities in economic sphere. It considers political business cycles as a sign of "bringing the politics back in economics" an idea which is an obsolete thought, dating back to the past two centuries. Finally, the article indicates that "bringing the politics back in economics" can question those economists who insist in separation of economics from politics, and emphasizes interdisciplinary studies developed in the recent decades.