Abstract

This thesis analyzes the intellectual history of Iran between the seventh and the thirteenth centuries. The theoretical part of the analysis is based on the works of Marx, Weber, and Habermas. The Sociology of Region of Weber as well as the Theory of Communicative Action of Habermas, however, were slightly modified in order to become useful for the analysis of the reality under investigation. The intellectual currents that are scrutinized in the of the above mentioned theoretical framework are Sufism, Fiqh and Kalam, and Zoroastrianism. In this context Fiqh and Kalam have been compared and contrasted with Sufism, on the one hand, and Zoroastrian thought, on the other. Other topics include the impediment of the process of institutionalization of instrumental reason by Fiqh and Kalam, in relation to different cultural and social spheres; rituals and linguistification of the sacred; Assertotic, Expressive, and Performative uses of language, and differentiation of legal laws, moral norms, and technical rules. Finally, I have argued that although Zoroastrianism, in like manner, impedes the cognitive and ethical rationalization in the western sense of the word, it promotes another type of rationalization, the one that is based on emancipatory and life affirming reason. The last chapter traces the roots of the three worldviews in the distinct solutions that they provide for the problem of Theodicy and the consequences of these solutions for social action of the believers