Sayed Hassan Akhlaq

Dr. Sayed Hassan Akhlaq
Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan
Personal details
Born	(1976-06-01) 1 June 1976 Bamyan

Sayed Hassan Hussaini (known as Akhlaq) is a philosopher from Afghanistan.

Life

Professor Akhlaq was born in 1976 in Sayghan city in the province of Bamyan, Afghanistan. He immigrated to Iran when he was four years old. Finishing primary and secondary schools in Mashhad he started to study classical religious seminaries (In Qum and Mashhad). Afterward he studied Islamic traditional courses and educated in the field of Islamic Theology and Philosophy in Razavi University of Islamic Sciences. He obtained his Master of Art degree in the field of western Philosophy from the Imam Khomeini International University and a doctorate (PhD) in western philosophy from Allameh Tabatabai University. He has taught at some universities in Iran and Afghanistan Such as Payame Noor University, Al-Mustafa International University and Gharjistan Institute of Higher Education . He acted as the adviser of Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan and Chancellor of Gharjistan University (Farah Branch). He works as the adviser for the Center for the Study of Islam and the Middle East in Washington D.C. Now, he is doing research in the George Washington University and the Catholic University of America. He used to give lectures at the Catholic University of America.

Activities

He has managed the first Afghan intellectuals magazine, Rayehey-e-azadi:the smell of freedom by international co-editorial staff for more than two years. He, also has published four books showing the author's intellectual trend. His dozens of articles have been published in scholarly and scientific journals (such as: Ayeneh Marefat: Beheshti University, Islam Pizuhi: IHCS, Zehn: Islamic Research Institute for culture and thought, Human Rights: Mofid University, Nebras: Nebras Research Institute in Kabul). Akhlaq is the first Afghan philosopher that presented papers in The XXII World Congress of Philosophy (2008 Seoul) and Catholic University of America (Washington DC: 2009). He, also, has published several papers on several profound websites like openDemocracy. Prof. Akhlaq is a professional member of American Academy of Religion and American Philosophical Association.

Published works

• From Rumi to Nietzsche (Qom: Sulok-e Javan: 1386/2007 Solar Hejri, ISBN 964-9958-01-0): A collection of comparative articles seeking to dialogue between among tradition, modernity and postmodernity by selecting human subjects such as life, human rights, intuition, religion, rationality and freedom. Mawlana and Suhravardi are selected from traditional world and Kant from modern world and Nietzsche and Heidegger from postmodern world. These articles presented before in international conferences, and because of the new reading from the above-said philosophers, they were very welcomed (pleasant).

• The Philosophical discourse between Islam and the West (Qom: Al-Mustafa International University, 1387/2008, ISBN 978-964-195-005-9): This book has a comparative approach in the subjects of being, time, causality, the arguments for the existence of God, the meaning of religious language between transcendental wisdom and some of western well-known philosophers such as Heidegger, Bergson, Hume, Kant and linguistic analysis philosophers.

• The Tradition of Enlightenment in the West and Islam (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1389/2009, ISBN 978-964-00-1231-4): This book make a comparison between the Islamic peripatetic philosophy and the enlightenment philosophy of the eighteenth century, in detail. That means it is seeking to present a philosophical reading from the western modernity and enlightened intellectual reading from the Islamic philosophy. In the fact, this book criticizes two dominated thinking on the Islamic world: this fact that the outrace of Islamic philosophy is transcendent wisdom and the matter that Islamic philosophy is not but Islamic theology and accordingly philosophy. Also, it has a positivistic look at the enlightenment philosophy and its latent redeemer matters.

• From tradition of Balkh to modernity of Paris (Kabul: Nebras Research Institute, 1389/2010, B745.N49 A44 2011): this book has been published by Nebras organization and saied publication in Kabul and includes ten research articles . First article is about differences and similarities among literature, philosophy and criticism. The second one compare and study three important thinking personality (Abu Zaid Balkhi, Abu Al-Qasim Balkhi, Abu Al-Mansor Maturidi ) who has been effective in Afghanistan and discuss them from the point of view of their utility for this country. Its two last Article study the notions of Al-Afghani and criticize him while they are mentioning important and helpful points of his ideas. Other articles take a comparative look at the opinions of Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Averroes, Abu Hamid Al-Ghazzali, Mawlana with Machiavelli, intellectuals and Jon Jack Rousseau. This book discusses very new ideas such as earthen look at Al-Farabi's policy, or Ibn Roshd's idea of progress which is really controversial by itself among scholars. Above-said books try to institutionalize dialogue among cultures, modern and pre-modern world, Islam and west and also open a way to a kind of inward looking and domestic development.

External links

• Official Webpage: [1]
• Prof. Akhlaq interviewing about his works and Activities: [2]
• Prof. Akhlaq interviewing on his Ideas and career [3]