From the Narrowness of Materialism  to the Breadth of Humanity and Faith. Part. 3

From the Narrowness of Materialism  to

 the Breadth of Humanity and Faith. Part. 3*

Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab El-Messiri**

Humanitarian Critique of Darwinian modernity

Instrumental reason and critical reason:

Instrumental reason is one of the most important term in this field. It is also known as the “subjective”, “technical” reason. It is opposite to the “critical”, “objective” or “macro” reason.

Instrumental reason is the reason, which follows procedures with no goal or purpose. It uses means to serve purposes without questioning the essence of these purposes and its nature; pro-humanity or anti-humanity. Practically, it determines its own purposes, priorities and motion in accordance with a materialistic practical paradigm to control and instrumentalize both nature and human.

Trying to explain the dominance of the instrumental reason in the modern western societies, Frankfurt school argues that among the most important reasons of its appearance is the abstract transaction mechanisms in the capitalist society. Exchanging commodities means that the exchanged objects are equal, as what is important is not its specified usage value related to human need, but its abstract market price. The ideology behind this abstract transaction is a materialistic and monist one, which erases the differences and equating between different phenomena so that the whole reality becomes a featureless matter. In fact, socialist societies do not present an alternative solution, as they are also controlled by the instrumental reason through the ruling technocracies.

Moreover, Frankfurt school members did not only explain the fundamentals of the instrumental reason depending on materialistic, economic or political elements only. Yet, they depended on cultural elements (following the footsteps of Max Weber). In fact, instrumental reason, for both Horkheimer and Adorno, is attributed first to the ancient Greek myths (which express the western man’s view on the universe), especially the myth of Odysseus in which the Iliad and Odyssey are the cornerstones of the western conscience. Through Odyssey, Odysseus ordered his crew to plug their ears with beeswax so they aren’t enthralled by sirens’ songs. He ordered them also to tie him to the ship’s mast and the more the song increases the more they tie him. This myth ends with the suicide of the sirens because Odysseus heard their songs and knew their secret. This myth can be explained as follows:

1. Human’s relationship with nature in Odyssey is based on struggle and dominance and not on harmony. Odysseus and his crew symbolize human who is eager to dominate nature.
2. This goal is attained by ruining man’s humanity and spontaneity. The crew (symbol of the working class) totally lost their connection with nature. Odysseus (symbol of the noble class) listened to the songs only tied to the ship, as he dreamt of happiness without experiencing it and dreamt of nature without any connection with it.
3. This does not lead to the separation of man from nature only but causes the separation of the example, the reality and the humanitarian part from nature. Hence, man depends on his reason to face the environment; trying to exploit it only without any interaction with it. In another word, the living man dies and is replaced by a dead imperialist economic man because he does not have a comprehensive humanitarian essence inside him.
4. This myth ends with the suicide of the sirens and the death of nature after losing their magic and sanctity.

Finally, Horkheimer and Adorno mentioned the subjectivity of Descartes when he regarded the self as opposite to the subject and created this harsh and firm duality between them. As if the self can exist independently of the subject and vice versa. The independence of self, here, means that it will transfer nature (following Odysseus) to a mere subject of contemplation, which can be invested, instrumentalized and controlled.

The movement of enlightenment is the peak of the logic of control and dominance (It was called the “sick enlightenment” or the “non-humanitarian enlightenment” or the “urbanism” versus “civilization”.). In fact, it is a movement of elimination, as it totally abolishes nature and announces the possibility of complete control by dismantling its necessary features (its sacredness-holiness- secrets- mysteries) and fragmenting it to detached atoms. Paradoxically, such enlightenment understood human himself through natural sciences (vanishing man-nature duality). This ended when enlightenment generalizes equalization, and the world becomes an instrumental tool subject to the administrative and bureaucracy fundamentals of the instrumental reason, apart from any humanitarian teleology. As a results, it became totally independent power with its parts and goals surpassing what is humanitarian.

We can say that the instrumental reason has the following features:

1. Instrumental reason sees the reality in terms of similarity; neglecting distinctiveness.
2. The instrumental reason is able to undestand parts. Thus, it divides reality into scattered parts in a way which could not be re-composed unless through simple reductive paradigms.
3. The instrumentals reason regards human as a part similar to natural/materialistic parts. Such part is not distinctive from the rest of the world. Thus, it can be recognized through social system, distributed contribution and nature/matter.
4. Instrumental reason regards human, from a natural science perspective, as a fixed being, a clear quantitative and a current situation with no potentials.
5. Instrumental reason regards nature and man as an instrumental tool which can be invested and instrumentalized to serve any goal.
6. The ultimate goal of existence is to preserve the self; its survival, dominance and superiority.
7. To achieve this goal, the instrumental reason imposes quantitative categories on reality and applies formal laws, normative rules and mathematical paradigms to all events and phenomena (nature and man). This is to control reality (this reaches its peak through positivism).

Accordingly,

1. Instrumental reason totally fails to realize social, political and historical processes within its comprehensive context. Yet, it totally fails to realize the ultimate teleology or transcendent totalities of sensory (tangible) partial data and instantaneous materialistic data (thus, it can be called partial reason). This means that it totally fails to achieve any cognitive or moral transcendence.
2. Due to this reason, the instrumental reason fails to surpass the present; returning to the past or traveling to the future. In another word, instrumental reason totally indulges in the timeless and
3. Due to the absence of any ability to realize the transcendent totality and any historical pillars or future visions, which means the absence of any fixed cognitive background on which general standards can depend, the instrumental reason totally indulges in cognitive, moral and aesthetic relativity. Everything is equal, and then a state of complete anomie appeared, and the paradigm dominating man will be nature/matter- commodity-noumenon- abstract transactions.
4. Consequently, the instrumental reason is only able to accept the reality and adapt to the surrounding events, partials and the situation of repression, oppression, stereotyping, reification and alienation. This means the firm establishment of the pillars of authority, powerful relationships and sovereignty in the society and the curb of any spontaneous creative tendencies.

 Jürgen Habermas (1929- ), the Frankfurt school’s last representative, has noticed the phenomenon of the instrumental reason and man’s subjugation inside modern societies and called it “colonization of life-world”. In fact, the instrumental rationalization and increasing instrumentalization of social life by economic, political and administrative systems and institutions, lead to people’s slavery, instrumental world dominance and the negligence of many of his rich aspects and various embedded potentials. (This means that the instrumentals reason leads to the dominance of materialistic objective monism, according to our terminology). Obviously, the instrumental reason described in western literature does not differ the so-called “materialistic mind”.

On the other hand, the Frankfurt school’s thinkers presents “the critical reason” as the principal concept in their writings. It is also called the “universal reason” or the “objective reason” (opposite to the “instrumental reason” or the “partial reason” or the “subjective reason”). The word “critical”, here, is ambiguous to some extent. It is attributed to the Kantian concept of criticism. In fact, Kant believed that his efforts in the western enlightenment project rejected all classical evidence and made everything subject to criticism. He, then, pulled out all the stops and subjected reason to the critical process itself. This means that Kant subjected the major enlightening tool to criticism and emphasized its narrow horizon. He went beyond the rationality of the enlightenment era and set two rationalities; superficial direct rationality and deeper rationality. This ends with the rationality of the instrumental reason and the rationality of the critical reason.

Hence, critical reason has the following features:

1. Critical reason does not regard human as a part of something bigger living in given fixed social forms where he finds absorption and division of labor. Yet, it regards him as an independent creative entity.
2. Critical reason recognizes the world (nature and man) in a different way compared to that of the natural sciences, which recognizes him as a fixed given, current situation and solid surface. The world for the critical reason is a current situation and an immanent potential.
3. Critical reason does not study direct particles only, because it is able to realize the universal truth and the purpose of human’s existence.
4. Critical reason is able to recognize human; his motives and potential and the purpose of his existence.
5. Critical reason is able, accordingly, to surpass the narrow self, the procedures, the direct details and the accomplished fact (so, it can be called the “transcendent reason”). It does not acquiesce and accept the current reality, yet, it can criticize the prevailing ideas, practices, relationships and search for the origins of objects and their hidden interests and the knowledge related to those interests (this is the critical reason’s deconstructive side)
6. The whole truth is not an abstract transcendent thing (absolute Hegelianism) but it is immanent inside human himself. Yet, the critical reason can recognize it despite their state of immanence.
7. History is a comprehensive process by which humanitarian entity is achieved. This means that history is attributed to man (the creator of the history) not vice versa. Thus, society in every moment is a unique manifestation of human. The achievement of the humanitarian potential in history is the goal of human’s existence.
8. Human’s liberty can be achieved through a rationalized organization of the society (realizing the humanitarian potential) through free interconnection among individuals, as each one of them has the same potential to develop himself, so that exploitation is uprooted.
9. Critical reason can participate in any creative effort, as it has the ability to distinguish between what is essential and what is occasional. It also can design a paradigm depending on what is imagined and possible not on what is given.

Commodification, Fetishism and Reification:

Commodification, Fetishism and Reification are among those terms emerged from man-nature/matter duality.

First, Commodification means that the commodity and transaction process represents a human’s vision of the universe, his self and his relationship with other human beings and society. And if commodity is the market’s center and axis, commodification means the transformation of the world to become a big market. This refers to the sovereignty of the object and the materialistic monism.

Since commodity is an object, commodification also means reification, which means the transformation of the among-human relationships into among-objects relationships (impersonal mechanical relationships). It also means to deal with people by regarding them exchangeable (instrumentalization of human beings; commodifying them). And, the peak of reification is the application of the principles of the instrumental rationalization and precise calculations to all fields of life.

To put it quite simply, reification means the transformation of man into objects, as his dreams are centered on objects. Thus, he does not go beyond the materialistic surface and the world of objects. The reificated human is a one-dimensional being who is able to deal efficiently with objects through simple reductive paradigms. Yet, he fails to deal with humankind due to their nature. In addition, the reificated human can surrender to the absolute abstracts and follow their guidance. This gives an exact description of the rationalized natural human who depends on the laws of nature/matter and other secular absolutes.

Furthermore, commodification and reification are, somehow, synonymous to the term “fetishism”. In fact, “fetish” is a matter, whether natural or materialistic. Human imagines that it has a soul and a magical effect, a mysterious power that can benefit or harm people. Thus, it becomes the center of religious rituals. Instead of regarding the commodity the fruit of a humanitarian social effort, reification (according to the humanitarian Marxist literature) regards it as an independent object from human being. Hence, Commodities (objects) control the producer (man) and not vice versa. In consumer societies, commodities become of central value exceeding their economic value and usage purpose. This means that the commodity gains a value in itself, by having its special life and course beyond man and his needs. This is a good example for the immanent materialistic authority (in commodity) which prevails all the transcendent authorities including the humanitarian. Accordingly, commodity becomes like a fetish; the center of the universe embedded in the matter, which is worshipped by human, and the only goal of existence. Thus, human is deviated away from his humanitarian essence and his compound divine entity, which can never be related to the world of nature/ matter in the monotheist systems.

In fact, commodification, fetishism and reification mean that human neutralizes his human nature and becomes a part of the materialistic objects word (and commodities) and the value-free materialistic natural entity. He, then, indulges in non-humanitarian abstract absolutes (nature/matter, and its applied terms: state, market, production, consumption) losing his (divine) human nature. They also refers to the de-deification of human and his surrender to the materialistic monism. This assures that Nietzsche’s project, to vanish the shadow of God, was successfully accomplished, while Rorty‘s project, the de-deification of everything surpassing such human, became an existing reality.

Alienation and standardization:

The three previous terms, commodification, fetishism and reification, share the same concept of the term “alienation”. This term refers to the detachment of man from his essence and his degradation to an undeserved inferior status”. In fact, reification, fetishism, commodification and the materialistic rationalization from one side and alienation from the other side are used interchangeably (and sometimes synonymously). This is because alienation means that human lost his connection with his deep embedded humanitarian feelings and needs, and that he is affected by the increasing dominance of the impersonal bureaucracy procedures.

All these phenomena resulted from a prevailing phenomenon in the modern society which is “standardization” which is derived from the noun “standard” and the verb “standardize” which means to unite (the approaches and standards). This term describes a phenomenon in the western civilization which is the similarity and standardization of many of the cultural products due to the massive mechanical industrial production (contrary to the products in the classical society, as each product has its independent identity derived from the character of its producer who made it with his hands). Standardization of the products leads to the standardization of public and private lifestyle. Thus, human lives in an organized daily routine with precise continuous and pre-planned schedule (bedtime- transportation- mechanical work- spare time). Finally, human’s life is standardized also. For example, fashion trends make all people change their fashion style every year, following the orders issued from Paris (or other fashion capitals). Thus, people surrender to this fashion orders as if they surrender to a law of nature. If fashion designers say: “This year’s fashion trend is maxi style clothes”, all people will hasten to lengthen their clothes. If they say: “short style clothes” all people will hasten to shorten their clothes and so on. Sociologists believe that the standardization process is not limited to the external field of objects only, but they are expanded till reaching human’s internal world, as man’s dreams, desires, wishes, visions and behavior patterns are standardized. In fact, all human beings, through this, become equal internally and externally.

The spread of violence, suicide, drinking alcohol and drug addiction in developing countries is a revolt against such standardization, which totally demolishes human’s internal world and freedom and pushes him to a simple materialistic monist world. Perhaps, the spread of porno reflects the same revolt, as the mechanisms of the sexual gratification become available everywhere in the western societies. Thus, pornographic films, books and magazines are increasing. A person whose freedom is completely suppressed flees from the world of standardization to a boundless “heavenly world”; a world, which is different than his homogeneous and firm world; a world of a complete chaos protecting him from the world of standardization, rigid control and materialistic monism.

One-dimensional Being:

The processes of rationalization, instrumentalization, reification and standardization caused the appearance of the “one-dimensional being“. This term was coined by Herbert Marcuse, one of the Frankfurt school’s thinkers, which means “the simple non-compound man”.

In fact, one-dimensional being is the result of the modern society; a one-dimensional society which is controlled by the instrumental reason and technological rationality and its slogan is very simple; achieving the scientific, industrial and materialistic development, maximizing the materialistic production, reaching an increasing rates of abundance, welfare and consumption. In addition, this society is dominated by positivism, which applies the standards of natural sciences to human and understands the reality through quantitative mathematical paradigms. This society also consists of huge administrative institutions invading the individual by rationalizing, standardizing, commodifying and employing him to achieve the targets intended.

Herbert Marcuse believes that, in the consumer societies, capitalist institutions have the upper hand; the state, the production and distribution processes, and even the control of people’s desires, goals and dreams. (This means that they control public and private life). In fact, they succeed in creating inside human a second deformed nature, in which he focuses on his assigned job (claiming that he is a “functional human”) and he dreams of commodities and regards himself just as a producer and consumer with no major teleology or bigger purpose, which go beyond the materialistic scope. He believes that the only way towards self- realization is by obtaining commodities. The desires of such man are fulfilled inside this scope of commodities. Consequently, he completely becomes a (commodified) one-dimensional being obsessed with the market and his limits never go beyond the market world and commodities, as if he is an object living with other objects.

Herbert Marcuse noticed that individual preambles used in the advertisements are malicious. They aim to impose collective consumer patterns which persuade the consumer to imitate others and follow the latest fashion trends. Individualism, here, is used for rationalizing human’s heart; to deeply believe that this dream is his own dream and that this commodity is his only personal way to achieve self-realization. However, it is a tool, which equalizes the goals and dreams of all people. That’s how the consumer machine goes on. In fact, the one-dimensional consumer is a stylish “object” who consumes all commodities demanded from him to consume inside a society managed internally and externally by non-democratic rationalized geometrical way. However, (this implies the strength of the consumer societies) human thinks that he is enjoying his freedom and individuality because the choice option in the realm of commodities is extremely wide! Yet, the truth is that the choice option concerning the important matters (fatal, humanitarian and moral) has been relinquished yet disappeared. Such human loses his ability to choose, transcend and criticize society. He only has a high ability for adaptation, acceptance and surrender to reality. This means that he becomes like natural/materialistic phenomena, which are controlled by the natural/materialistic inevitabilities. Herbert Marcuse called such societies “unfree democratic societies”; a totalitarian society in which population are internally persuaded to adopt the prevailing vision without any external police oppression. This influence makes human believes that commodity accumulation is a life goal. As a result, a sort of “smooth reasonable democratic unfreedom” prevails!

Furthermore, Max Horkheimer depicted an image of the modern human, which does not differ from that of Herbert Marcuse. He saw that modern human was freed from the absolute standards of the traditional society. Yet, the result is not positive because he becomes free from all principles (a value-free being like nature/matter) except the principle of happiness and self-pleasure (within a materialistic commoditized independent frame). He also becomes free from all objectives and values except the materialistic ones such as survival and self-maintenance. He, then, becomes a hollow man with no content or standard except that related to means calculation, and he totally fails to evaluate the suggested options or realize the reality of distortion in order to correct the mistakes and refine the solutions. Therefore, he no longer has the ability of going beyond his narrow self or surrounding situations and he fails to criticize them. His only main ability is the ability to adapt with the dominant social powers and perform the job assigned to him. He has no freedom of choice except the freedom of choosing between available alternatives determined by the society, which he chooses after being indulged in rationalized calculations inside the given framework, procedural rationalized calculations free of any content or ultimate goals.

One-dimensional being is the natural man (economic and physical man). He is a simple being who lives inside the scope of nature and its laws; with no ability to transcend. A human being who completely loses the transcendent critical reason. He is also the functional man who is recognized in the light of his assigned job and who is rationalized and domesticated within the technological materialistic rationalism.

The Hidden God:

There is a main paradigm promoting these mentioned terms. The main features of this paradigm can be described as follows:

1. The center of the universe is human unrelated from nature. A human who is transcendent, multi-dimensional, free and morally responsible.
2. Human is degraded from this position when the center becomes the nature/matter (which is programmed, inevitable and controlled by one firm law) or any other similar terms (such as: object- commodity- technological rationalism- bureaucratic and technocratic efficiency – quantitative paradigms).
3. As a result, man-nature duality is replaced by materialistic monism. Consequently, man-centered humanitarian systems based on value and knowledge independent from the world of nature/matter disappear; as he becomes a natural human.
4. Human loses any kind of distinction, by de-deification, depriving him from his humanitarian features and personal traits. Thus, he undergoes instrumentalization, rationalization and naturalization.
5. All objects (including human) are subjected to the logic of natural sciences and mathematical quantitative paradigm, so that his own reason becomes an instrumental reason which is able to deconstruct only with no ability to reach the essence of the humanitarian nature. Thus, human enters the iron cage; the world of calculations (within the materialistic frame) in which all objects are programed and controlled. Accordingly, the calculated and contractual relationships in society prevail, while the compassionate symbiotic relationships disappear.
6. Human, in such new status, has no duality, integration or complexity, and has no transcendent ability. He is a simple one-dimensional natural/materialistic being who is functional, patterned, programmed and who is an integral part of the matter; apart from his humanitarian essence.
7. However, human does not completely surrender. There is something embedded inside him which makes him realize his potentials and his difference from the commodity, objects and his independence from the world of nature/matter. He, then, refuses to follow the materialistic inevitabilities and revolts against the attempts of his reification. In another word, man-nature duality cannot be erased, as it is revived to emphasize his essence and then emphasize the humanity of man.

Some western thinkers referred to this embedded thing inside human, which motivate him to reject the materialistic monism paradigm and firmly attach him to his independence from nature/matter, as “the hidden God”. This term is almost synonymous with “conscience”, as conscience means that there is a non-materialistic thing embedded inside human, which pushes him towards the good. If he does not hasten to good following his conscience, he will feel regret because he denies a dimension of his existence. We use the term “the hidden God” instead of “conscience” to illustrate the universal and ultimate dimensions of the concept of conscience, which is not materialistic and cannot be related to nature/matter. It is an element inside man, which we call the “divine tendency”. It is a spiritual element, which cannot be materialistically interpreted. In fact, conscience is an expression of the hidden God inside human, yet it is attributed, according to our visions, to a specific moral system by which human realizes evil and good.

We can say that the hidden God, in reality, is the unconscious research of the materialistic human for the sacred within the scope of modern secular inevitabilities after believing that he killed God and established a temporal world free from sacredness, taboo and holiness. In fact, this term is not popular for the western literature, yet it was mentioned in many studies at the top of which is the study of Cleanth Brooks, an American literary critic.

The Frankfurt school thinkers realized that human has an embedded free creative potential that goes beyond the materialistic present. They fully discussed this infinite potential that is neglected by the modern age, the instrumental reason and the modern technocratic systems. Depending on such realization, they established their critical theory, but in terms of materialism.

The hidden God appeared in the words of John Stewart Mill, a western thinker (a secular liberal thinker who denies the presence of the creator). He said: “It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.”

This statement denotes the duality of humanitarian existence as it swings between the (humanitarian) Socratic status and the (natural/ materialistic) porcine status. The origin on this porcine status is fully understood, but what is the origin of the (humanitarian) Socratic status? And why does man prefer the Socratic status with its all moral burdens, anxiety and dissatisfaction, rejecting the porcine status with all its sensory pleasure and physical satisfaction? From a pure materialistic perspective, there is no difference between Socrates and the pig. Mill tried to illustrate his choice depending on rational, yet materialistic, basis by saying that he preferred Socrates because Socrates knows both the truth of his nature and the pig’s (both sides of the questions). This means that Socrates has a free will of choice, and thus he is more sophisticated. However, standards like freedom, ability to choose and the compositional depend on a belief in something, which is non-materialistic and transcendent, which saves human from being degraded; in the state of the satisfied pig. The Socratic human being could not realize the low nature of the pig if he has not inside him something, which goes beyond such real materialistic nature.

Furthermore, the paradigm of the hidden God tragically appears in the statement of Robert Oppenheimer, who set the equation that leads to develop the nuclear bomb. Replying to a question of the author of this book during his visit at his home in Brinston: “what is the first thing did you do after discovering this famous equation?” The answer was: “VOMITING”! Obviously, the natural/ materialistic human who lives in the natural/ materialistic sphere and accumulates the informations with impartiality; apart from any humanitarian values and standards, could reach the required mathematical equation after achieving the appropriate accumulation. Yet, the rational human who has conscience holding a distinctive divine light, studied, evaluated the issue from a moral perspective, and realized its danger. So he vomited! Indeed, Oppenheimer’s materialistic scientific achievement and his vomiting during the moment of triumph depicts the reaction of modernized literature. It is a literature of a victorious civilization, which celebrates its triumph…but vomiting! This is because the hidden God inspires them that those achievements reached by their civilization in the name of the natural/ materialistic human lead to the burial of something very critical inside human, which is “the divine light”. Yet, they never utter its name. They only describe it, and implicitly mention it in their writings.

It can be argued that talking about “the inevitability of metaphysics” is a discussion of the hidden God. It was noticed that man, no matter what is his level of atheism and materialism, he searches for a center for the world, a framework, a firm ground and a totality beyond particles. In addition, Nietzsche used the term “the shadows of God” to talk about this issue. Reaching such fact, post-modernist philosophers’ project did not aim to attack the religious metaphysics or idealism only but to deny the idea of the truth itself to irrevocably remove the shadows of God and metaphysics. Their proposed dream is to get rid of the absolute/ relative dualism in favor of a relative absolute (fixed-changed).

In fact, the effective paradigm in the modern western civilization is a totally materialistic monist one. However, we found that mankind adopts an approach different from the dominant paradigm. That is why there are dualities of good and evil, sacred and profane, absolute and relative that resulted from their innate realization of man-nature duality. Therefore, innate human relationships last in a way that challenges the effective materialistic paradigm. Therefore, we claim that Americans, for example, as human beings are greater than the prevailing values in American society. This is an assertion that shows that the divine element in human cannot be obliterated.

It can be also argued that this divine element that is closely related to man’s humanity and nature, an element that takes the form of a hidden God, prevents the natural/materialistic paradigm from being fully realized, and from reaching the disclosing moment and the materialistic zero-point… except rarely. The hidden God, then, means that God is eternal, and that God’s materialistic manifestation and unity with matter does not refer to the death of God (Yet, He transcends nature and matter). In fact, it means that human’s forgetfulness of God leads to human’s forgetfulness of his complex divine entity:

“…نَسُوا اللَّهَ فَأَنسَاهُمْ أَنفُسَهُم…”

“…They forgot God, so He made themselves forget themselves…”

(Al-Hashr (Exudos): 19).

In fact, human pretends to have forgotten his potential to go beyond the materialistic world and discover his humanitarian divine essence. Anyway, it is not a complete forgetfulness, as Divine inspirations are deeply rooted inside human’s heart.

Translated by: Rehab Jamal Bakri***

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* A Research prepared by A. Prof. Dr.Abdel Wahab El-Messiri to be presented to the conference: “الفلسفة في الفكر الإسلامي: قراءة منهجية ومعرفية” (Philosophy in Islamic Thought: A Methodological and Cognitive Reflection) organized by the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Amman/Jordan in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture in Jordan and the University of Jordan, on October 29-30, 2008. Yet, Dr. El-Messiri, may Allah shower him with His Mercy, passed away -before the conference.

The research is published in the Journal of Al-Muslim Al-Muassir (The Contemporary Muslim), V. 151, 2014, pp. 173-287.

مجلة المسلم المعاصر. ع. 151، 2014. ص ص 173- 28.

** Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Girls, Ain Shams University.

Dr. El-Messiri has worked a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Ain Shams University and several Arab and Islamic universities. To learn more about the author, please visit the website: www.elmessiri.com.

***  Egyptian Researcher and Translator.