Taha Abdurrahman
Moroccan philosopher
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Early life and education
Abderrahmane was born on 28 May 1944 and raised in El Jadida (province of El Jadida), Morocco. There, he attended primary school, after which he moved to Casablanca, where he continued his high school education. He later joined Mohammad V University (in Rabat, Morocco), where he obtained his licentiate in philosophy. Abderrahmane completed his studies at the University of Sorbonne, where he received his second licentiate and obtained his third-level doctorate in 1972 on the subject: "Language and philosophy: a study of the linguistic structures of ontology", and in 1985 he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy on the subject "study of argumentation and its methods" (in French: Essai sur les logiques des raisonnements argumentatifs et naturels, or in English as "Essay on the logic of argumentative and natural reasonings").
In addition to speaking Arabic, French, and English, he also reads German, Latin and Ancient Greek in order to read philosophers in their original languages.
Abderrahmane is known in all his books as "Taha Abderrahmane", although his given name is Abderrahmane and his family name is Taha. Scholars in the Anglophone world often repeat "Abderrahmane" as if it were his family name, following the way it appears in his books, while in the Arab world, his philosophy is known under the name "Taha'iyya", i.e., "Taha'ian". The official spelling of his name in official documentation is Abderrahmane (not Abdurrahman or Abdul Rahman).
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Academic career
Abderrahmane served as a professor of philosophy of language and logic at Mohammad V University from 1970 until his retirement in 2005. He is a member of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, which he represents in Morocco; a representative of the Society of Intercultural Philosophy (German: Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Philosophie); and director of the Wisdom Circle for Thinkers and Researchers.
Abderrahmane was awarded the Prize of Morocco twice. In 2006, he received the ISESCO Prize in Islamic thought and philosophy.
Characteristics of his method
His philosophical practice is characterized by a combination of "logical analysis" and "linguistic derivation" proceeding from a mystical experience, within a framework that provides the concepts related to the Islamic heritage and is based on the most important achievements of modern Western thought at the level of "theories of speech", "argumentative logic", and "philosophy of ethics", which makes his philosophizing predominantly appear in a "moral" and "deliberative" style.
Most important works
- Language and philosophy: an essay on the linguistic structures of ontology (in French), 1979
- A treatise on deductive and natural argumentation and its models (in French), 1985
- Formal Logic and Grammar, 1985
- On the basics of Dialogue and Renovation of Islamic Theology, 1987
- Religious Practice and Renewal of Reason, 1989
- Renovation of the Method in Assessing the Heritage, 1994
- Praxeology of Philosophy I: Philosophy and Translation, 1994
- Language and Balance, or Multiplicity of Reason, 1998
- Praxeology of Philosophy II.1: The Philosophical Sentence, the Book of the Concept and Etymology, 1999
- The Question of Ethics: A Contribution to Ethical Criticism of Western Modernity, 2000
- Dialogues for the Future, 2000
- The Arabic Right to Differ in Philosophy, 2002
- The Islamic Right to Be Intellectually Different, 2005
- The Spirit of Modernity: An Introduction to Founding Islamic Modernity, 2006
- Modernity and Resistance, 2007
- The Question of Practice, 2012
- The Spirit of Religion, 2012
- Dialogue as Horizon of Thought, 2013
- The Poverty of Secularism, 2014
- The Question of Method: Toward a New Paradigm in Thinking, 2015
- The Post-Secularism: A Critique of the Separation Between Ethics and Religion, 2016
- The Wandering of the Post-Secularism, 2016
- The Religion of Decency, 2017
- Ethical Concepts Between Fiduciarism and Secularism, 2 volumes, 2021
- Sharia Objectives from Fiduciary Ethics Perspective, 2022
- The Question of Philosophical Autobiography: An Inquiry into Fiduciary Philosophy, 2023