Two Traditional Responses to the Challenge of the West: On the Critique of Marxism in Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāʾī (1904-1981) and Svāmī Karpātrī (1907-1982)

• Applicant: Dr. Felix Herkert
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 504292775

The aim of the research project is to investigate a hitherto little-noticed chapter in the history of intercultural ideas in the 20th century, namely the first comprehensive – and in this form unique – reactions of traditional religious scholars in Iran and India to Western philosophy (especially in the form of Marxist doctrine). These reactions come, on the one hand, from Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāʾī (1904-1981), one of the most important Shi'a scholars of modern times, who has had an immense impact in Iran, and, on the other hand, from Svāmī Karpātrī (1907-1982), an Indian Brahmin and ascetic who is one of the most prominent Hindu saints and scholars, not least political activists, of the past century. Both, highly unusual for their respective social milieus, produced extensive works in the 1950s in which they provide a genealogically large-scale examination of Western philosophy, culminating in Marxism. These works continue to shape the perception of the West in their countries to this day, but have hardly been noted in the West itself (also because none of them has been translated into a Western language). The confrontation of the two religious scholars with the West – in the form of Marxism – will first be historically located, then reconstructed and analyzed in its content, and furthermore illustrated in its political implications. The Eurocentric perspective, which is still predominant in today's historiography of philosophy, will be challenged by looking beyond the confines of Western discourse and by illustrating the chances and dangers of intercultural transfer of ideas by examining this paradigmatic constellation.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: Iran
• Host: Professor Dr. Gholamhossein Karimi-Dustan