Persian Letters as a Representative Case for the Encounter of the Enlightenment with the Other. A Critique of Eurocentrism in Relation to the Concept of Universalism during the Enlightenment

Abstract

The research question: How does the concept of "comparison," inspired by the enlightened concept of critique, act as an intercultural mechanism serving the Enlightenment's ideal of universality? The research hypothesis: As a transition period, the Enlightenment aims to build a new world, or more precisely, its goal is to rebuild the modern world based on human reason. The Enlightenment considers humanity to be a universal concept and tends to go beyond European borders to define global patterns of humanity. In this study, the Persian Letters is examined as a philosophical work, which represents the universalist tendencies of the Enlightenment era through a comparative study of the philosophical movement's encounter with foreigners. The study aims to say that the concept of comparison plays a major role in replacing well-established ideas of the era in order to establish new ones. This process of change is initiated through comparisons made between European societies and exotic foreign cultures. The research aim: The purpose of this work is to examine Persian Letters as a sample of efforts made by the Enlightenment thinkers to achieve the Enlightenment ideal: that is, making a "change", or in other words causing revolution, enlightenment or even modernization in non- European societies, based on the...

The research question: How does the concept of "comparison," inspired by the enlightened concept of critique, act as an intercultural mechanism serving the Enlightenment's ideal of universality? The research hypothesis: As a transition period, the Enlightenment aims to build a new world, or more precisely, its goal is to rebuild the modern world based on human reason. The Enlightenment considers humanity to be a universal concept and tends to go beyond European borders to define global patterns of humanity. In this study, the Persian Letters is examined as a philosophical work, which represents the universalist tendencies of the Enlightenment era through a comparative study of the philosophical movement's encounter with foreigners. The study aims to say that the concept of comparison plays a major role in replacing well-established ideas of the era in order to establish new ones. This process of change is initiated through comparisons made between European societies and exotic foreign cultures. The research aim: The purpose of this work is to examine Persian Letters as a sample of efforts made by the Enlightenment thinkers to achieve the Enlightenment ideal: that is, making a "change", or in other words causing revolution, enlightenment or even modernization in non- European societies, based on the...