A Critique Of Modernism in the Context of Civilization in the Discourse of Ali Sariati

Abstract

Having obtained himself a position among sociologists and always reminded himself with his thoughts on the subjects and issues he addresses, Shariati has extensive studies on human, society and concepts that are related to people-society.  Shariati, interested in the science of history, examined the laws of movement, change and formation for the human being in the context of cause-effect relationship and tried to convey the results he obtained in his works. Concepts that include social change and development include modernism and civilization. Modernism and civilization are issues that the Islamic world and developing third world countries need to focus on and discuss. The western world has used both concepts together or one of them interchangeably. The Western world defined the new lifestyle it wanted to create by moving away from medieval thought and traditions as modernism, but it wanted to market it to non-European countries with the label of civilization. In this study; As a researcher who knows the Western and Eastern world, Shariati's perspective on the concepts of civilization and modernism is discussed.Shariati states that Europeans impose modernism on non-Europeans under the concept of civilization and criticizes modernism and offers a mini prescription as a solution.