Research in Theoretical Politics
Year:2013 | Volume:NEW | Issue:12|Papers Count:7

The emergence and expansion of constructivism as one of the significant conceptual and theoretical frameworks in International Relations in the two last decades was accompanied by an increase in interest toward empirical researches in this framework. Researching in the framework of this approach has some special implications which is unfortunately less followed in current researches and surveys, especially in students’ theses and dissertations. In addition to this, many of the young scholars in the field of International Relations who are theoretically interested in constructivism are in doubt about choosing domains of subjects they can empirically research from this perspective. The purpose of this article is to show The implications of conventional constructivism survey and it's subject domains. The applied method for collecting data in this essay is library-based and depends on the theoretical and meta-theoretical texts and empirical surveys and researches and shows that how can constructivism be a theoretical base for almost all subject domains in the field of International Relations.

The purpose of this study is to find the metaphysical alphabets and suppositions in political thought of Machiavelli; the alphabets which have root in his political thinking and his special status in West Political Thought.In spite of considering Machiavelli thought as the pure realism and to give him titles like the founder of political realism, and to bring him to the threshold of Political positivist (the start of New Era) by many thought scholars, this writing is to show that the empirical reflections of Machiavelli about Politics is under effect of categories which are mainly theological remained from past eras and its strings can be seen in his thought too (like other Renaissance Humanists). It is attempted in this article under three subjects, i.e.: the seminal principle, the connection between Fortuna and Virtu and Belief in Deliverer (Saviourism), to make the theological roots of political thought of Machiavelli clear and propose a theological reading from it.

In this article, it is tried to answer two fundamental questions about Islamic attitude in International Relations. First, is there any reality outside of Human mind from Islam view and can human intellect come to understand the real categories? Second is that, is International Relations a real and incontestable issue? If yes, can the intellectual knowledge and understanding of this category be the religious understanding base of International Relations? To answer these questions, among the available different faiths in Islamic and Shi’ism thought, we used the realistic attitude of Allame Tabatabaee and Ayatollah Motahari which they themselves call realism too. It is obvious that the concept of realism in their attitude is different with the current concept of realism among the theories of International Relations for which scientists like Morgenta and Walts are its deputies. This thinking school is concomitant and consistent with a kind of intellectualistic juristic attitude which considers an absolute argumentum for Intellect to understand juristic decrees. Then, It is showed that this attitude believes, not only in the existence of reality and the capability of intellect to comprehend it, but also they believe that the intellectual understanding of human from these incontestable phenomena is the main base for religious knowledge. In the last part of this article, along with a brief review of Modern International Relations foundations, it is showed that the entirety of International Relations and its foundations like nations-states, International organizations and International economy are incontestable issues which are developed in the last two decades and were not existed in lawgiver era and the Islamic attitude is dependent on their intellectual understanding and judgment in new condition.

Habermas divides political thought into two eras of Classic and Modern, in general, to explain the relation of ethics and politics. In his view, ethics and politics had mutual relations in classic era; but, in the beginning of modern era and with creation of two methodological and topical evolutions, classic “political philosophy” was replaced by science or “social philosophy” and this causes the increasing separation of ethics and politics; thus, politics which was an institution to ensure the happiness and salvation of citizens became an institution of management and controlling technique in social relations and human instincts. Habermas extended the abovementioned evolution to Kant’s Ideas, too. The purpose of current article, based on the earmarks and features of Kant political thought, is to prove that the mentioned evolution could not be extended to Kant, since in Kant political thought like classic political thought, politic is the way of development of ethical concepts, with this difference that in Kant thought the concept of “happiness” is replaced with “solipsism” and “perfection.

Since the victory of Islamic Republic of Iran up to now, there emerged two significant and effective intellectual and political currents. The first current which could be called from intellectual dimension as “Juristic Islamism Current” and from political dimension as “Fundamentalism current”, got its climax political power in first and third decades of Islamic Revolution and it still keeps its power today. In contrast, the second current which could be called from intellectual dimension as “religious new thinkers” and from political aspect as the “Reformism current” reached its climax political power in the second decade of Revolution and from then on its is declining.The main purpose of this article is to comparatively review these two currents regarding the issue of women’s rights, particularly in relation to their political participation and its main hypothesis is as follows: “the different intellectual and religious principles of these two currents caused an inconsistency in their position toward the issue of women’s rights, particularly in relation to their political participations. To evaluate this hypothesis, using the descriptiveanalytical method, it is tried to review intellectual and religious alphabets of these two currents and compare particularly these two in relation to political participation and family. The findings of this research shows that their attitudes toward the issue of women’s rights have significant differences in one hand, and in other hand, these differences are basically due to their different but inflexible interpretations of religion.

In the contemporary history of Iran, literature was under focus as a framework for expressing social changes particularly after the Iranian’s encountering with Modernity during Constitutional Revolution. Some of Iranian forces and literary activist’s who had leftist trends in their political thought, choose literature as their method and approach in their fighting. Reza Baraheni as an Iranian writer and critic is located in cultural Left in the literary domain of Iran. Before and after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, he produced some works in criticism, poetry, and story which, in one hand, include themes like class practice and, in other hand, shows his commitment toward social and political changes of a society in which he intellectually lives. This commitment is itself based on an epicism based on Leftism; therefore, the present Class practice in Baraheni’s works could be seen as effected by his Epic Leftism.