Appreciation of the Emeritus Professor Karim Mojtahedi by the Department of Philosophy at Khatam University

According to the public relations and website of Khatam University, after Dr. Karim Mojtahedi; Dr. Shahin Avani is one of the famous professors of philosophy and one of the most well-known professors of this field who had a significant contribution to the growth of philosophical research in Iran. In a note, the director of the Department of Philosophy of Khatam University discussed the great scientific character and the impact that Mojtahedi left behind in some areas of philosophy. The full text of this note will be read below.

Most of the professors and lecturers of the Department of Philosophy of Khatam University were either directly (at least in several courses at different stages of their studies) the students of Professor Mojtahedi or if they were not students of Tehran universities and were not directly his students, they have used his works in their teaching, research, and writings and recommend all his works to students as a reliable philosophical source. It is definitely a characteristic of the field of philosophy that philosophers do not accept all the viewpoints of different professors, and in some cases, they have critical perspectives toward them. However, in the case of Dr. Mojtahedi, the experts and students in this field see him as an exemplary teacher who was compassionate and pure in his thoughts and actions.

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A Brief Introduction of Dr. Mojtahedi

Dr. Mojtahedi was a contemporary philosopher (born in 1930 in Tabriz and died on January 15, 2024, in Tehran), the grandson of Ayatollah Mirza Javad Mojtahed Tabrizi (died in 1934), and one of the great jurists. He passed the first and second grades of elementary school in his hometown. His family came to Tehran and he continued his education at Ferdowsi Elementary School in Tehran and then at Firooz Bahram High School and Alborz College in Tehran.

After receiving his diploma, Mojtahedi went to France at the age of 18 and studied at the Sorbonne University (La Sorbonne) - one of the most prestigious and oldest universities in France with more than seven hundred years of history (founded in 1253 AD). At that time, he studied Philosophy at Sorbonne which proposed various fields namely literature, linguistics, Philosophy, and social sciences. The teacher of his master's thesis was Professor Jean Wahl (1888-1974), under whose supervision, Mojtahedi wrote a thesis on the subject of "Examination of Kant's Transcendental Analysis". Professor Henri Corben (1903-1978), philosopher, orientalist, French translator, and author of the four-volume course "Islam in the Land of Iran; Spiritual and Philosophical Perspectives (En Islam iranien, Aspects spirituels et philosophiques)" was also the guide of his doctoral thesis in France, which he defended in 1964. Corben himself was a student of Etienne Gilson[1], Jean Barrozzi[2], and Louis Massignon[3]. Mojtahedi introduces his teacher Korban as one of the rare teachers who has worked on Iranian Islam in general and Shia Islam specifically.

Mojtahedi returned to Iran in the same year (1964) after completing his doctoral degree and defending his doctoral dissertation in philosophy. He officially started teaching in the philosophy department of Tehran University in 1968 with the suggestion and guidance of Yahya Mahdavi, and until the end of 2004, he was a professor of the philosophy department of the Faculty of Literature and Humanities at Tehran University. He retired in the spring of 2014. After that, at the request and invitation of the Humanities and Cultural Studies Research Institute, he continued his research work in the field of Western philosophy at that research institute.

When we look at the professor's academic record, we can clearly see that Professor Mojtahedi lived a blessed life (93 years) and had more than 25 works (philosophical references) that have remained from him. In addition, by educating three generations of philosophy students at various bachelor's, master's, and especially doctoral levels, he was able to train prominent professors, lecturers, and researchers, and from this point of view, his life has been blessed and fruitful.

My apprenticeship with Professor Mojtahedi started in 1972. I took the first course "The Path of Wisdom in Europe" in the Greek Philosophy section in my first year of university with him. Dr. Mojtahedi had a very serious character and a deep personality. In addition to the classroom, he maintained his discipline outside the classroom as well. In those years, undergraduate and graduate students did not dare to ask him a question outside the class. It seemed that Kantian order had taken a practical form in him. This relationship between student and teacher continued until the end of his life.

Mojtahedi was introduced as a permanent figure of Iranian philosophy in 2001. In 2009, as a pioneer researcher in humanities, he received UNESCO's commendation and Ibn Sina's world gold medal. In 2011, he was nominated as a distinguished professor by the National Elite Foundation, and in 2021, he won the "Alborz" award as a top scientist.

He is the author of philosophical reference books such as "Kant's Critical Philosophy", "Iranians' Acquaintance with New Western Philosophies", "Philosophy and Modernity", "Descartes and His Philosophy", "About Hegel and His Philosophy", "Philosophy in the Middle Ages", "Syed Jamaluddin Asadabadi and New Thought", "Dons Scotus and Kant according to Heidegger", "Sohrevardi and his thoughts, a reflection on the sources of Enlightenment philosophy" etc., which during 6 decades of intellectual activity, with his works and scientific efforts, made a great contribution in the history of contemporary Iranian thought. Among his works, a work that is group work can also be seen, such as: "Islamic and Western Schools and Universities in the Middle Ages" (2000), which was published in the Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies in the form of a book with the same name.

It was said that the Mojtahedi was a student of Jean Val. in France. For those who read this article and want to know more about Jean Wall, it is recommended to remember that Yahya Mahdavi (died 2000), who was a pioneer professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran and a graduate of philosophy from France, in addition to being a student of Andre Lalande and Emile Brier, he has translated two works of Jean Val from French into Persian: 1- A look at phenomenology and philosophies of existence. and 2- discussion in metaphysics. The main discussion of the recent book is about existentialism, which starts with the topic of "man" and its author believes that it is "man" who gives value, meaning, understanding, and recognition to life.

Mojtahedi: What is Philosophy?

"Philosophy is a general science through which one can enjoy a kind of comprehensiveness that guarantees the depth of thinking. Philosophy is in search of new thinking possibilities and examines the premises and results of its possible plans in a kind of inevitable rational evaluation " (Sohrevardi and his thoughts [4], pp. 10 and 11).

"If philosophy is the love of wisdom, the philosopher is one of the most willing people in the world, and seeking and learning is his nature, and the need to study and learn is as powerful as the instinct of life for him. One should even be convinced that this love for continuous search is not only the greatest privilege of philosophy and its special chapter, but also the same reward that a philosopher receives after years of effort. If he has not acquired a thirst for learning, his degree will be merely a formality and will not be a real measure of what he has learned or not learned; Such a person has spent his youth and life for "nothing" and has not benefited from it...”

"Enmity with philosophy belongs to those who have never had the pain of culture and science in the original sense of the word and have not understood its necessity in various fields of individual and social life".

In the continuation of the same article, Mojtahedi pointed to one of the common false issues, that is, the unjustified notion of opposition between Western philosophy and Iranian-Islamic philosophies, and he wrote about this clearly and without the slightest consideration:

"Today in Iran, neither Western philosophies can be properly understood without studying and pondering Iranian-Islamic philosophies, nor can these same traditional philosophies be comprehensively analyzed and realized without learning the subtleties of Western philosophy. A correct understanding of one inevitably requires a precise understanding of the other. Considering the current state of Iranian culture in the last hundred years, it can be well understood that those who have mastered Iranian-Islamic philosophies have not only been able to better understand the main points of Western philosophies but have also been able to use the terms and correct techniques and equivalents. Although the goals and results of Western philosophies, especially in the new and contemporary era, differ to a great extent from Iranian-Islamic philosophies, in any case, historically, their roots and fundamental sources are completely the same" (same source: p. 13).

Mojtahediand the importance of Kant's critical philosophy

It was said that Dr. Mojtahedi’s philosophical education was mostly focused on Kant. He wrote in an article entitled "The Relationship between the Categories of Understanding and the Polemical Argument of the Parties in Kant's Theoretical Philosophy" in 1982:

“Most historians of the history of philosophy agree that Kant and his critical philosophy is a turning point in the evolution of Western thought in the new era. This does not mean that philosophy after that period necessarily became Kantian, or perhaps the neo-Kantian philosophers of the late 19th century succeeded in re-proving the coherence of this philosophy and expressed it in a more acceptable way, but rather it means that in critical philosophy Kant, issues are raised that question the entire knowledge and science of the western world at the end of the 18th century. The main importance of Kant's critical philosophy is more for this reason, whether we believe in its internal coherence or, on the contrary, consider it a set of components and elements that have a weak logical and principled relationship, in any way with Knowing it, we are forced to reflect and think. This is enough for us to find the thoughts of that philosopher interesting and deep and to think once again that a philosopher who cannot make his potential audience think in the course of time is not a philosopher [5].

According to Professor Mojtahedi, if we consider Kant's critical philosophy as a turning point in the history of Western thought, it is not necessary to think of it as a high point and second only as a meeting place of different philosophical trends; On the other hand, scientific, moral, legal, and artistic issues are more prominent in Kant's vision than mere abstract issues that are falsely called philosophy and are deliberately kept away from the cultural and scientific currents of the time so that solutions can be obtained easily.

In general, from the professor's point of view, an effort to understand a philosopher is an effort to recognize the motivations that made him think, and for this reason, it is accompanied by a will to participate in his thinking, otherwise, he repeats words and expressions which are neither positive nor negative and keeps the mind sterile.

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​ [1] Etienne Gilson, 1884-1978, specialist in philosophy in the Middle Ages

[2] Jean Baruzi, 1881-1953, professor of philosophy and history of religions, specialist in Leibniz's philosophy

[3] Louis Massignon, 1883-1962, is a great French orientalist who studied and researched Hossein Mansur Hallaj and wrote and published a book titled La passion de Hysayn Ibn Mansur Hallaj (Gallimard Paris, 1975) in four volumes. has done.

[4] Mojtahedi, Karim: Suhrawardi and his thoughts, a reflection on the sources of enlightenment philosophy, Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, 2013.

[5] Cf.: The article "The relationship between the categories of understanding and the polemical argument of the parties in Kant's theoretical philosophy". In: Farhang Quarterly, the publication of the Institute of Cultural Studies and Research (former)/ Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies (current), fourth and fifth books, spring and autumn 1368, pp. 189-221).