Tarih
From Ali Başhamba to İbrahim Kalın: The Shadow of the Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa
Tarih
From Ali Başhamba to İbrahim Kalın: The Shadow of the Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa
Islamic history of science
Archaeology of Freedom: Individual–Politics–Justice–Morality
Islamic history of science
Imagining the Chinese Typewriter
Religions history
The Geopolitics of Theology: The Iran-Rome Wars and Islam
Opinion
What is İbrahim Kalın saying?
From Ali Başhamba to İbrahim Kalın: The Shadow of the Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa
Before Kalın lies a significant historical opportunity in terms of an anti-imperialist and Islamic world-centered security perspective. At a time when politics is becoming increasingly shallow amid day-to-day calculations and policies are being shaped by short-term gains rather than long-term national interests, Kalın’s intellectual formation offers him the opportunity to open up a broader horizon. If Kalın can build a long-term security doctrine during his tenure as President of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), one that prioritizes the national interest and combines Türkiye’s regional ambitions with institutional rigor, he may become one of the figures held in high esteem across the Islamic world, much like Ali Başhamba.
Archaeology of Freedom: Individual–Politics–Justice–Morality
Only through such a process of substitution can an individual transcend their human nature and progress towards becoming Adam, transforming into a free human being who chooses to exist through their own labor, abilities, and preferences. Thus, freedom can become the name of humanization, of being human, of being Adam, in the sense of possessing, being master of oneself, being able to choose, and being able to assume responsibility, and it can become the foundation of a social order in which people can live humanely. This ‘freedom is not the daughter of order, but its mother.’
Neuroscience and Paul Ricoeur’s Challenge
Neuroscience operates from a third-person perspective. It looks at the brain from the outside and derives concepts such as brain images, neurons, and synapses from the phenomena it observes. Conscious experiences such as suffering pain, remembering, loving, and fearing, however, are ultimately lived from the first-person perspective. Undoubtedly, these experiences may also be explained at the level of scientific phenomena, but the dialectic of explanation and understanding will always proceed together. According to Ricoeur, understanding is not merely receiving information; it is not confined to reading a text[3] or deciphering words.
Imagining the Chinese Typewriter
As we shall see in the next essay, the difficulties of Derrida’s attempt, in Grammatology, to draw upon a figure of China—most likely from the Western canon (or from the Western “process” of thought about China)—while discussing Chinese ideographic writing and, of course, Egyptian hieroglyphs, that is, to rely on a figure such as the characters of Chinese writing, also become evident here.
The Geopolitics of Theology: The Iran-Rome Wars and Islam
Safavidism, like Zoroastrianism’s reaction against India, first developed as a reaction to Mongol remnants. Later, the ancient geopolitical Iran–Rome dialectic reemerged, leading to the Ottoman-Iran wars. Safavid Shiism fully defined itself as Iran’s war against Rome. These wars, lasting until the mid-18th century, ended with the victory of the Ottomans (the Muslim Rome).
From Ali Başhamba to İbrahim Kalın: The Shadow of the Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa
Before Kalın lies a significant historical opportunity in terms of an anti-imperialist and Islamic world-centered security perspective. At a time when politics is becoming increasingly shallow amid day-to-day calculations and policies are being shaped by short-term gains rather than long-term national interests, Kalın’s intellectual formation offers him the opportunity to open up a broader horizon. If Kalın can build a long-term security doctrine during his tenure as President of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), one that prioritizes the national interest and combines Türkiye’s regional ambitions with institutional rigor, he may become one of the figures held in high esteem across the Islamic world, much like Ali Başhamba.
Archaeology of Freedom: Individual–Politics–Justice–Morality
Only through such a process of substitution can an individual transcend their human nature and progress towards becoming Adam, transforming into a free human being who chooses to exist through their own labor, abilities, and preferences. Thus, freedom can become the name of humanization, of being human, of being Adam, in the sense of possessing, being master of oneself, being able to choose, and being able to assume responsibility, and it can become the foundation of a social order in which people can live humanely. This ‘freedom is not the daughter of order, but its mother.’