گفتمان هويتي تجدد گرايان ايراني در انقلاب مشروطيت

IRANIAN MODERNIST (MOTAJADEDIN) DISCOURSE IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTIONʹS ERA

One of the major categories of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution is modernists (motajadedin) who are referred to variously as "adaptionists", "apologists", "syncretists" and "revisionists". Motajadedin are devout and knowledgeable Iranians whose mission is threefold: first, to define Iranian identity by bringing out of the fundamentals in rational and liberal manner; second, to emphasize, among others, basic elements of modern ideals of freedom, tolerance, fraternity, law, secularism and nationalism; and third, to interpret the context of social tradition in such a way as to bring out is dynamic character in the context of the intellectual and scientific progress of the modern world. In contrast to traditionalists, concerned with maintaining of the status quo, and to the reformer Islamists, motajadedin sincerely endeavored to reconcile differences between traditional religious doctrine and secular scientific rationalism, between unquestioning faith and rational logic, and between the continuity of Islamic tradition and modernity. In this paper I shall argue that the so-called modernist thought of Iranian motajadedin discourse, was in content and form deep-rooted in ideological understanding of modern identity. The modernistsʹ vision of a new society basically reflected an ideology of modern ontology and philosophical views.