Nasirean Ethics II (On Politics)

Nasirean Ethics II (On Politics)

Nasir al-din Tusi’s Nasirean Ethics (اخلاق ناصری‎ Akhlāq-i Nāsirī) or Muhtashami Ethics (اخلاق محتشمی Akhlāq-i Muhtashamī) is a groundbreaking Farsi text written in the 13th century, right before the advent of the Ilkhanids government. The book includes three main parts of Practical Philosophy (i.e. Ethics, Household Economics, and Politics), in thirty chapters (roughly 305 pages in total). 
The first part of Nasirean Ethics is a translation of Ibn Miskawayh Razi’s philosophical textbook, Tahdhib al Akhlaq wa Tathir al'Araq (تهذيب الأخلاق و تطهير الأعراق - Refinement of Morals and Cleansing of Ethics). This part includes two sub-parts and seventeen chapters. The other two parts of Nasirean Ethics are Nasir al-din’s own philosophical writing on Household Economics (including five chapters) and Politics (including eight chapters).

In his magnum opus, Tusi was inspired by various sources. Other than the Greeks (e.g. Aristotle, Plato, and Neo-platonists) and the Muslim philosophers (e.g. Al-Farabi), Tusi was also influenced by Islamic Mysticism (Tasawwuf) as well as the pre-Islamic Persian rulers. We shall take a glance at some of these sources of thought in the workshop.

In the first workshop I conducted on Nasirean Ethics, I focused on Ethics in general, and Virtue Ethics in specific. In the coming workshop entitled Nasirean Ethics II (On Politics), I will concentrate on the latter discourse in Nasirean Ethics; namely, Politics. To have a better grip on the book, I will adopt an intertextual method, using primary sources such as Aristotle’s Politics, Nizam al-Mulk’s Siyasatnama, and Al-Farabi’s political treatises.

Duration: The workshop will be conducted throughout four weeks and each session will take two hours.

Time Schedule: The workshop will begin online on 22.07.2020 at 17:30 (GMT+3). The final session will be on 12.08.2020.

Language: The spoken language of the workshop will be English. However, the participants may feel free to communicate in Turkish and/or Farsi. The primary Farsi source will be provided alongside the English translation of G. M. Wickens.

Please click on the link below to apply for this workshop

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Event Date:   22/07/2020
Event Time:   17:30
Event End Date:   12/08/2020