Hasan Hanafi

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Hasan Hanafi ( Arabic حسن حنفي, DMG Ḥasan Ḥanafī ) (* 1935 ) is an Egyptian philosopher .

Life

Hanafi studied philosophy at the University of Cairo and obtained his BA in 1956. Afterwards doctorate he in Paris at the Sorbonne and received in 1966 his doctor diploma. From 1971 to 1975 he was visiting professor at Temple University in Philadelphia . Since 1980 he has been a full professor of philosophy in Cairo. In addition, he continuously holds numerous offices in the field of science:

  • Since 1976 Secretary General of the Egyptian Society for Philology.
  • Since 1983 Vice President of the Arab Society for Philosophy.
  • Since 1988 chairman of the philosophy faculty at Cairo University.
  • Since 2001 Vice President of the Arabic Philosophical Society.

He was also visiting professor at the University of Tokyo (1984–1985), at the University of California, Los Angeles (1995) and at the University of Bremen (1998).

"Occidental Studies"

Hasan Hanafi criticizes the negative attitude of the Moroccan philosopher and literary scholar Mohammed Abed Al Jabri towards mystical , illuminationist and spiritual philosophy. Like Jabri, Hanafi also supports the thesis of a buried Islamic identity . Unlike Jabri, he does not want to rediscover the cultural heritage through postmodern methods, but rather through a critique of European culture. He chooses a hermeneutical - phenomenological approach. Hanafi does not favor a pure return to the traditional legacy of Islam, instead he would like to examine the path to modernity. In his opinion, there is no longer any need for the Islamic world to find access to modernity, because modernity is already universal and all societies participate in it.

However, he criticizes that the existing concept of modernity has failed because it is based solely on European foundations. He therefore made it his goal to analyze these fundamentals and use the results to develop an Islamic modern concept. He ironically describes his work as "Occidental Studies " (as opposed to Oriental Studies ).

Hanafi criticizes the Western-dominated concept of modernism for the fact that there are certain central cultures that have colonized and suppressed peripheral cultures such as the Islamic one. These peripheral cultures are deformed and distorted by Western influence. Hanafi describes that the peripheral cultures can develop an independent, new conception of modernism through the development of the scientific methods of the central cultures and an analysis of the previous modern development.

Such a new concept should, according to Hanafi, realize the principles of equality and unity for all people. For the central cultures he describes a phase of decadence and postulates for it the necessity to get new ideas from the peripheral cultures. Hanafi's interpretation of “ turath ” means the connection between one's own cultural roots and the pursuit of a new, better conception of modernity.

various

He was one of the 138 signatories of the open letter a common word between us and you ( Engl. A Common Word Between Us and You ), the personalities of Islam to "leaders of Christian churches everywhere" (Engl. "Leaders of Christian Churches, everywhere ... ") (October 13, 2007).

Works (selection)

  • Religious Dialogue and Revolution , Cairo, 1977. (English)
  • Contemporary Issues , 2 vols., Cairo, 1977. (Arabic)
  • Tradition and Modernism , Cairo, 1980. (Arabic)
  • From Dogma to Revolution , 5 vols., Cairo, 1988. (Arabic)
  • Religion and Revolution in Egypt , 8 vols., Cairo, 1989. (English)
  • An Introduction to "Occidentalism" , Cairo, 1991. (Arabic)
  • Islam in the Modern World , 2 vols., Cairo, 1995, 2nd ed. 2000. (English)
  • Cultures and Civilizations. Conflict or Dialogue? , 2 vols., Cairo, 2006. (English)

literature

  • Thomas Hildebrandt: Emancipation or Isolation from the Western Teacher? The debate about Hasan Hanafi's “Introduction to Occidental Studies” . Berlin 1998; ISBN 3-87997-266-4

See also

Web links

  • Study the West . By Hasan Hanafi. Zeitschrift für KulturAustausch, January 1st, 2005. (Occidentalism as a science analyzes the European consciousness - and gives the Orient new self-confidence.)
  • Globalization as a new form of western hegemony . Interview with Hasan Hanafi. Internet portal Qantara, 2003. (The Egyptian philosophy professor Hassan Hanafi is a staunch opponent of globalization. He sees it only as a new form of oppression by the western states.)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hendrich, Geert: Islam and Enlightenment: the modern discourse in Arabic philosophy. Darmstadt 2004; Pp. 266-283; Leaman, Oliver and Morewedge, Parviz: Islamic Philosophy, Modern, in: Craig, Edward (Eds.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, London 1998
  2. ↑ acommonword.com: A common word between us and you (short version) (PDF; 186 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Hanafi, Hasan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 1935