This seminar is dedicated to the intellectual as a key figure of the mediation between traditional culture and the globalized hyper-modernity. Taking the classical definition of the Western European intellectual for a starting point, this seminar proceeds towards the interpretation of several intellectual figures that are currently active worldwide, including such names as Farish Noor, Abdellatif Laâbi, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Inocência Mata, and others. This is also an occasion to revisit such issues as the heritage of the post-colonial, the recent, trans-colonial phenomena and the need of an adequate paradigm for their interpretation.
This seminar provides a systematization of several threads of my previous research: the reflection on the intellectual as a misleading seducer, destroying certitudes and exposing himself to the general hate of those whom he throws into the dire necessity of thinking; the investigation of the consequences of the post-colonial projects, such as francophony and lusophony; the interpretation of individual figures and their reconstruction of the post-secular space.
I come back to several concepts that appeared in my previous research, such as "meek" symbolic violence and the seduction of civilization. Should the Maghrebian intellectuals, declaring themselves as the heirs of Lumières, be regarded as seduced? What perspectives for the future open with the creation of the common intellectual ground for the interpretation of monotheistic religions?
At the same time this seminar is a step towards the Transcultural Humanities seminar and the projected re-evaluation of the Abrahamic tradition in its context.
PREVIOUS PROCEEDINGS CONNECTED TO THIS TOPIC
„Imperial Seduction and ‘Meek’ Forms of Symbolic Oppression”, Silent Intelligentsia. A Study of Civilizational Oppression, Jan Kieniewicz (ed.), Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies „Artes Liberales”, Warsaw 2009, p. 108-123. Research realized in the framework of the project "Silent Intelligentsia" in 2006.
"Cnota omylności. O miejscu intelektualisty w kulturze" ["The virtue of fallibility. The place of the intellectual in culture"], Anthropos?, nr 18-19/2012, p. 48-58. http://www.anthropos.us.edu.pl/anthropos10/texty/lukaszyk.htm
"Travelling away from the “artsy post-modern lefty-pinko university”. Noor's transcultural experience and the duties of the intellectual", Colloquia Humanistica, nr 3/2014, p. 91-102.
https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/ch/article/view/ch.2014.006/570
Conference paper: "Intelektualista jako homo religiosus. Tradycje europejskiej nowoczesności i myśliciele islamu" ["Intellectual as homo religiosus. Traditions of European modernity and Islamic thinkers"], Islam w Europie. Nowe kierunki badań, conference organized by the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, 18-19.03.2014.
Awaiting publication: "Postsekularny namysł nad religią i myśliciele islamu. W stronę spójnego pola refleksji" ["Post-secular thought on religion and Muslim intellectuals. Towards a coherent field of reflection"]
Abstract: The aim of the article is to present the emergence of a coherent field of reflection on religion involving European and Islamic intellectuals. A seminar organized in 1994 by Jacques Derrida and a group of prominent Italian thinkers is treated as the starting point of a process exemplified later on by Giorgio Agamben's writings. On the other hand, the emergence of the figure of Muslim intellectual is illustrated by such thinkers as Abdallah Laroui, Abdellatif Laâbi, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Mohammed Arkoun, Farish Noor and others.
The presence of Muslims in the European intellectual landscape redesigns the figure of intellectual as a secular instance and fosters the quest for new sources of its legitimation. The new approach towards religion is distinct or even opposite in relation to traditional theologies as it proposes doubt and examination against certitude and blurs the distinctions that define the faiths. On the other hand, it founds new circuits of ideas reactivating “apocatastaticly” the unity of Abrahamic traditions, as well as bringing about a redefinition of European intellectual and spiritual identity.
This seminar provides a systematization of several threads of my previous research: the reflection on the intellectual as a misleading seducer, destroying certitudes and exposing himself to the general hate of those whom he throws into the dire necessity of thinking; the investigation of the consequences of the post-colonial projects, such as francophony and lusophony; the interpretation of individual figures and their reconstruction of the post-secular space.
I come back to several concepts that appeared in my previous research, such as "meek" symbolic violence and the seduction of civilization. Should the Maghrebian intellectuals, declaring themselves as the heirs of Lumières, be regarded as seduced? What perspectives for the future open with the creation of the common intellectual ground for the interpretation of monotheistic religions?
At the same time this seminar is a step towards the Transcultural Humanities seminar and the projected re-evaluation of the Abrahamic tradition in its context.
PREVIOUS PROCEEDINGS CONNECTED TO THIS TOPIC
„Imperial Seduction and ‘Meek’ Forms of Symbolic Oppression”, Silent Intelligentsia. A Study of Civilizational Oppression, Jan Kieniewicz (ed.), Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies „Artes Liberales”, Warsaw 2009, p. 108-123. Research realized in the framework of the project "Silent Intelligentsia" in 2006.
"Cnota omylności. O miejscu intelektualisty w kulturze" ["The virtue of fallibility. The place of the intellectual in culture"], Anthropos?, nr 18-19/2012, p. 48-58. http://www.anthropos.us.edu.pl/anthropos10/texty/lukaszyk.htm
"Travelling away from the “artsy post-modern lefty-pinko university”. Noor's transcultural experience and the duties of the intellectual", Colloquia Humanistica, nr 3/2014, p. 91-102.
https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/ch/article/view/ch.2014.006/570
Conference paper: "Intelektualista jako homo religiosus. Tradycje europejskiej nowoczesności i myśliciele islamu" ["Intellectual as homo religiosus. Traditions of European modernity and Islamic thinkers"], Islam w Europie. Nowe kierunki badań, conference organized by the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, 18-19.03.2014.
Awaiting publication: "Postsekularny namysł nad religią i myśliciele islamu. W stronę spójnego pola refleksji" ["Post-secular thought on religion and Muslim intellectuals. Towards a coherent field of reflection"]
Abstract: The aim of the article is to present the emergence of a coherent field of reflection on religion involving European and Islamic intellectuals. A seminar organized in 1994 by Jacques Derrida and a group of prominent Italian thinkers is treated as the starting point of a process exemplified later on by Giorgio Agamben's writings. On the other hand, the emergence of the figure of Muslim intellectual is illustrated by such thinkers as Abdallah Laroui, Abdellatif Laâbi, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Mohammed Arkoun, Farish Noor and others.
The presence of Muslims in the European intellectual landscape redesigns the figure of intellectual as a secular instance and fosters the quest for new sources of its legitimation. The new approach towards religion is distinct or even opposite in relation to traditional theologies as it proposes doubt and examination against certitude and blurs the distinctions that define the faiths. On the other hand, it founds new circuits of ideas reactivating “apocatastaticly” the unity of Abrahamic traditions, as well as bringing about a redefinition of European intellectual and spiritual identity.
