Papers by Mohammad Nafissi
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2007
of Weber, Polanyi, and Finley. At the end of the book, Nafissi urges us to turn away from these s... more of Weber, Polanyi, and Finley. At the end of the book, Nafissi urges us to turn away from these shadows and look to their source in all its beauty and ugliness: to the mythical Athens that is the source of so many of our democratic dreams and ideals, and to the his torical Athens, the land of slavery and con quest, which betrayed these dreams and ideals before it ever gave birth to them. He urges us to treat Athens not as an eternal form, but as a "historical utopia," where we can return to the source of our dreams to study their socio-historical conditions of im/possibility. It is a sage suggestion. While I might wish to add other historical utopias to that list-Revolutionary France or Renais sance Florence, for example-I too would rather fight the political battles of the future on the historical grounds of the past, rather than in fantastical terrains of the imagination such as the Book of Revelation or the ratio cinations of game theory. While we may cas tigate Weber for undervaluing theory, from a practical point of view, the dangers of un dervaluing history are exponentially greater, as the apocalyptic visions of religious radicals and the neoliberal policies of shock thera pists make only too clear.
Max Weber Studies, 2000
Marx's unresolved reflections in 1857 on the apparent dissonance between the level of economic de... more Marx's unresolved reflections in 1857 on the apparent dissonance between the level of economic development and cultural and political achievements of ancient Greece serve as a poignant introduction to the 'oikos controversy' of some four decades later which had a major impact on Weber's intellectual development. This paper reconsiders Weber's thought in the light of his two-decade-long preoccupation with the methodological and substantive issues raised by that debate. It presents Weber's culminating contribution, the 1909 edition of The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilisations, as a resolution of 'Marx's paradox' as well as his most rounded attempt to overcome the tension between history and theory in accordance with the approach advocated in the methodological essays of 1903-1906.
Max Weber Studies, 2000
Marx's unresolved reflections in 1857 on the apparent dissonance between the level of economi... more Marx's unresolved reflections in 1857 on the apparent dissonance between the level of economic development and cultural and political achievements of ancient Greece serve as a poignant introduction to the 'oikos controversy' of some four decades later which had a major impact on Weber's intellectual development. This paper reconsiders Weber's thought in the light of his two-decade-long preoccupation with the methodological and substantive issues raised by that debate. It presents Weber's culminating contribution, the 1909 edition of The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilisations, as a resolution of 'Marx's paradox' as well as his most rounded attempt to overcome the tension between history and theory in accordance with the approach advocated in the methodological essays of 1903‐1906.
This book examines the political aspects of all the world's major religions, including such c... more This book examines the political aspects of all the world's major religions, including such crucial contemporary issues as religious fundamentalism, terrorism, the 'war on terror', the 'clash of civilizations', the Arab Spring, and science and religion. Each chapter has been updated to reflect the latest developments and thinking in the field, and new chapters such as ?Postsecularism and international relations? and ?Securitization and Secularization: The two pillars of state regulation of European Islam? have been added to ensure the book is a comprehensive and up-to-date resource
Marx's unresolved reflections in 1857 on the apparent dissonance between the level of economic de... more Marx's unresolved reflections in 1857 on the apparent dissonance between the level of economic development and cultural and political achievements of ancient Greece serve as a poignant introduction to the 'oikos controversy' of some four decades later which had a major impact on Weber's intellectual development. This paper reconsiders Weber's thought in the light of his two-decade-long preoccupation with the methodological and substantive issues raised by that debate. It presents Weber's culminating contribution, the 1909 edition of The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilisations, as a resolution of 'Marx's paradox' as well as his most rounded attempt to overcome the tension between history and theory in accordance with the approach advocated in the methodological essays of 1903-1906.
Max Weber Studies, 2006
This article pursues two specific and entwined objectives. It accounts for the absence of a gener... more This article pursues two specific and entwined objectives. It accounts for the absence of a general concept of reformation in Max Weber's sociology of religion, and demonstrates the need for one and supplies it through a comparative analysis of Islam as a 'reform-prone' Abrahamic religion.
La Pensee, 1998
L'œuvre de Max Weber presente-t-elle la formulation classique de l'orientalisme sociologi... more L'œuvre de Max Weber presente-t-elle la formulation classique de l'orientalisme sociologique qui explique la stagnation des societes musulmanes par un probleme intrinseque de civilisation, lie a une religion decadente ? Apres avoir examine cette accusation l'A. etudie les vues de Weber et ses idees sur l'islam. Il montre qu'une approche weberienne peut etre une mediation dans les debats sur la montee de l'islamisme
Max Weber Studies , 2000
Marx's unresolved reflections in 1857 on the apparent dissonance between the level of economic de... more Marx's unresolved reflections in 1857 on the apparent dissonance between the level of economic development and cultural and political achievements of ancient Greece serve as a poignant introduction to the oikos controversy of some four decades later which had a major impact on Webe's intellectual development. This paper reconsiders Weber's thought in the light of his two-decade-long preoccupation with the methodological and substantive issues raised by that debate. It presents Weber's culminating contribution, the 1909 edition of The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilisations, as a resolution of Marx's paradox as well as his most rounded attempt to overcome the tension between history and theory in accordance with the approach advocated in the methodological essays of 1903‐1906.
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2015
Modern scholarly accounts of ancient Greece and more particularly the research programme which br... more Modern scholarly accounts of ancient Greece and more particularly the research programme which broadly frames Moses Finley's contributions are generally traced to George Grote's politically anchored History of Greece and re-evaluationof Athenian democracy. However, notwithstanding their far-reachinginfluence, Finley's writings display an exceptional complexity that has invited a wide spectrum of contradictory interpretations and evaluations. This article extends my previous study of Finley's Athens by locating and exploring an unresolved and still significant debate that he held with himself through the major political and economic writings of his last period (1973–85). It thereby discloses the normative, theoretical, and empirical demands that, on the one hand, informed his account of ‘the ancient economy’ and necessitated its overall incoherence, and, on the other, allowed for a coherently normative account of ‘ancient politics’. In the process, some notable claims...
Iranian Studies, 2016
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
Economy and Society, 1998
... of religion as complicit in impetialist domination - if only by diverting attention from the ... more ... of religion as complicit in impetialist domination - if only by diverting attention from the main issues and struggles ... Weber ignored many of the questions that are of concern today, namely the relationship between Islam and other ingredients of modernity, democracy, gender ...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 03085149800000005, May 8, 2009
AbstractModern scholarly accounts of ancient Greece and more particularly the research programme ... more AbstractModern scholarly accounts of ancient Greece and more particularly the research programme which broadly frames Moses Finley's contributions are generally traced to George Grote's politically anchored History of Greece and re-evaluationof Athenian democracy. However, notwithstanding their far-reachinginfluence, Finley's writings display an exceptional complexity that has invited a wide spectrum of contradictory interpretations and evaluations. This article extends my previous study of Finley's Athens by locating and exploring an unresolved and still significant debate that he held with himself through the major political and economic writings of his last period (1973–85). It thereby discloses the normative, theoretical, and empirical demands that, on the one hand, informed his account of ‘the ancient economy’ and necessitated its overall incoherence, and, on the other, allowed for a coherently normative account of ‘ancient politics’. In the process, some notable claims about Finley's work and politics are clarified, and it is shown why ‘Finley's ghost is [still] everywhere’ even though the short twentieth century that spanned his life, posed its major questions and set the context and constraints of his answers, has long been over.
The success of Hayek's ideas and the political project they served is especially attested by the ... more The success of Hayek's ideas and the political project they served is especially attested by the appreciation and appropriation of his theories by socialist intellectuals whose rehabilitation was one of his life-long preoccupations. His work, however, continues to elicit contradictory epithets such as 'remarkable consistency' and 'irremediable eclecticism', 'propaganda' and 'social science'. The apparent paradox is underlined by Hayek's own forceful rejection of dogmatic rationalism and all forms of intellectual and political eclecticism. This paper attempts to relate and resolve these conundrums by re-examining his work in the light of yet a third question that haunted him ever since his youthful conversion from Fabian socialism to militant liberalism, namely how to reconcile the decline of liberal capitalism, considered the freest and most efficient order conceivable, with an evolutionary discourse that precluded such a possibility. By anchoring the discussion in this central question, rather than the customary focus on a particular theory, tradition, discipline or set of privileged texts, this paper demonstrates that both eclecticism and ideological closure are intrinsic to Hayek's singular quest to advance the cause of 'progress' against the permanent threat posed by collectivism.
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Papers by Mohammad Nafissi
Modern scholarly accounts of ancient Greece and more particularly the research programme which broadly frames Moses Finley's contributions are generally traced to George Grote's politically anchored History of Greece and re-evaluation of Athenian democracy. However, notwithstanding their far-reachinginfluence, Finley's writings display an exceptional complexity that has invited a wide spectrum of contradictory interpretations and evaluations. This article extends my previous study of Finley's Athens by locating and exploring an unresolved and still significant debate that he held with himself through the major political and economic writings of his last period (1973–85). It thereby discloses the normative, theoretical, and empirical demands that, on the one hand, informed his account of ‘the ancient economy’ and necessitated its overall incoherence, and, on the other, allowed for a coherently normative account of ‘ancient politics’. In the process, some notable claims about Finley's work and politics are clarified, and it is shown why ‘Finley's ghost is [still] everywhere’ even though the short twentieth century that spanned his life, posed its major questions and set the context and constraints of his answers, has long been over.