Imran Abdullah

The Greek philosopher Socrates was not a revolutionary and did not seek to overthrow the government, despite his skeptical approach to prevailing beliefs. Although he refused to obey the 30 dictators who took control of Athens and opposed the unconstitutional demand of the Greek leader Calixnis, he was convicted in his trial of corrupting the Athens youth and refused to seek pardon, but his philosophical thought and concept of "virtue is knowledge" was another revolution that changed the course of human thinking.

Plato, by contrast, was true to the idea of ​​a radical new society in his "Republican" dialogues. Karl Marx, however, was late in his frustration that philosophy was trying to explain the world in exchange for failing to change it.

Historians of philosophical history, including Australian academic Mark Manolopoulos, argue that philosophy has been and will continue to be revolutionary. "Unfortunately, some philosophers have forgotten their radical call or ignored it." But the spirit of philosophical rebellion soon reaffirms the essence of radical philosophy.

In modern times, the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre had much to say about revolution and rebellion. He admired Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara, visited him in Cuba, and before Sartre French philosophers had many ideas about revolution and rebellion.

Socrates' concept of "virtue is knowledge" was a revolution that changed the course of human thinking.

French Revolution
In the 18th century, many French intellectuals who inspired the revolution of 1789-1799 emerged, including Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu and Denis Diderot, and their revolutionary ideas encouraged the French masses to fight for their rights, revealing the incompetence of the king and his government.

These philosophers and others provoked the people to challenge power through their writings, and Voltaire attacked the Catholic Church, believing that "the fate of man is in his hands and not in paradise." His ideas encouraged people to fight against the privileges and dominance of the church.

Montesquieu's philosophy dealt with constitutional monarchy and the division of powers. He believed that all forces should not be concentrated in the hands of one person, while John Locke put forward ideas refuting the absolute "divine" rights of kings.

Rousseau emphasized the principle of democracy and sovereignty of the people, and he believed that the government should be based on the consent of the governed.He wrote in his book `` Social Contract '' the nature of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled as a contract between them, and his statements included the right of people to change their government if they are not satisfied with it.

Thus, the ideas of the philosophers were a direct attack on the privileges and feudal rights that protected the upper classes, helped to provoke people from inactivity and inculcate the desire to eliminate social inequality and form a government responsive to their needs, and played a vital role in encouraging discontent and inspire the revolution.

But by the mid-1990s and the "era of terrorism" during the French Revolution, philosophers emerged "against the Enlightenment" who inspired the revolution, most notably Edmund Burke, who linked the enlightenment philosophers to instability in France, as well as Joseph de Maestre, who considered "revolution a divine punishment for the sins of the Enlightenment" And Augustine Barwell who argued in his memoirs explaining the history of Jacobism (1797) that the revolution was the result of a conspiracy of philosophers and Freemasons.

They and others blamed the Enlightenment and its philosophers, who undermined the traditional beliefs that preserved the old order, producing the "bloody revolution."

Rousseau affirms the principle of democracy and people's sovereignty

Europeans
The ideal German philosopher Hegel was a revolutionary but rejected revolutionary violence and radicalism. He believed that the task of philosophy was to understand what existed, yet felt that the political system of his time would not withstand new ideas.

In line with the philosophers critical of the demagogic phenomenon of the French Revolution, Hegel argued that the revolutionaries influenced by Rousseau's philosophy created negative freedom and destroyed their own institutions, but Hegel stressed that "freedom outside the state is an illusion."

In the article "Kant and the Revolution," French philosopher Michel Foucault, who died in the mid-eighties of the last century that the German philosopher Borussian Emmanuel was confused before the French Revolution, and quoted a text to the latter saying that the rebels would not repeat their work after they saw the result.

He was the son of the enlightenment approach conservative to the French Revolution and demagoguery and refused to rebel against the authority of a sovereign and legitimacy, and considered that the reform of minds better than a revolution that topples despotism, and thus adheres to the idea of ​​enlightenment, but adopts the reform option.

In his book Metaphysics of Ethics, he addresses the "theory of law" and says, "Any change to the constitution should be made by the ruler himself and that is through reform, not by the people by resorting to revolution." There is no legitimate resistance of the people against the supreme legislator. To the state. "

Hegel was revolutionary but rejected revolutionary and radical violence (Getty Images)

Revolution and Islamic Sufism
In his book "Poetry, Mysticism and Revolution," Egyptian critic and author Helmi Salem discussed common areas between Sufism, which represents a major philosophical trend in Islamic heritage, and the revolution, and confined it to concepts such as freedom, rebellion against inertia, equality, and social dimension.

Salem believes that Sufism shares with the revolution the emphasis on freedom, which is the essence of the Sufi and revolutionary experience at the same time, and contrary to the prevailing stereotype of Sufism as a spiritual phenomenon separate from reality, the author believes that the values ​​of Sufism intertwined with many political events.

Senior philosophers and Sufis such as Abdul Qadir al-Jilani and Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi played a role in the political and social struggle.