ISG lecture: Aramech Dustdar

Iranian Studies Group at MIT presents:

"Our Cultural Somber"
A lecture by: Aramech Dustdar



Saturday May 12, 2007

4:00-5:30 PM

Harvard University

Jefferson Physical Laboratory

17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02139



The lecture will be conducted in Persian

Abstract: Aramech Dustdar, a philosopher in Cologne, received a PhD degree in western philosophy from University of Bonn Germany. He was teaching philosophy in University of Tehran between 1974 and 1979.



Aramesh Dustdar is the author of "Impossibility of Critical Thinking in Religious Culture ? Paris 2004" and "Gloomy Sparkles ? Cologne 1991", "Philosophical Considerations - Tehran 1976", among others. His philosophical essays have appeared in Persian language periodicals inside and outside of Iran.



Aramech Dustdar is known primarily for his writings on the concept of ``deen-khooei'' (religious mindedness). He believes that in a theocratic society, both religious people and atheists suffer from critical thinking inability and lose their ability to develop a questioning mind. For Dustdar, the Iranian culture is based on an unconscious religious attitude which prohibits the understanding of the modern world based on secularization and rationalization. Even when the Iranian intellectuals (like Akhundzadeh) seem to think in a non-religious way, it is the domination of a religious thought that characterizes them.



Aramech Dustdar considers Razi, Ferdowsi and Abdollah Roozbeh Ibn Moghaffah as prototypes of Iranian thinkers who had the ability to think critically. In his mind, Imam Mohammad Ghazzali, one of the greatest thinkers in Islam, and among the foremost theologians, is an example of numerous Iranians who never developed a capacity to think critically.



Although Dustdar has not proposed a solution for the problem, He does suggest that Iranians not copy western thinking. Instead, he calls for self-criticism as the only way to achieve modernism in Iran.





Te see the flyer in Persian, please visit our website:

http://isg-mit.org/lecture/?id=424&cat=next



To view a map, go to:

http://map.harvard.edu/level3.cfm?mapname=camb_allston&tile=F6&quadrant=C&serie=M







Direction to the Jefferson building:



By car:

From I-90 (Massachusetts Turnpike): Get off at Cambridge (exit 18). Turn left immediately onto Soldiers Field Road (west). Take Harvard Square exit, bear right across Anderson Bridge, and drive straight into Harvard Square. You'll pass Out of Town News on your right, then merge with Massachusetts Avenue. Keep Harvard Yard on your right. Stay to the right at the fork, and go into the underpass. Once you emerge from the tunnel, turn left onto Quincy Street and, after one block, left again onto Kirkland Street. Kirkland ends at the Science Center; turn right onto Oxford Street. Physics buildings Jefferson and Lyman are behind the DEAS McKay Laboratory on your left. Vehicle access is available further along on the left, but the only available public parking is on Oxford Street.



By subway:

Take the red line. Take inbound train (toward Alewife) to Harvard Square.



Once in Harvard Square:

Upon exiting the "T" station, walk into Harvard Yard to the statue of John Harvard; from here take path to your left, exit the yard and veer left, around the Science Center (modern white building). The large red-brick building in front of you is Jefferson. Elevator access to both Jefferson and Lyman is through Lyman.

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