Second Generation of Intellectualism, Absolute State and the Problematic of Modernity

The intellectual orientation of various generations of Iranian intellectalism has been shaped from the context of involvement and thinking in the issue of decadence and Underdevelopment, the way of exit from it, and finally the relation of traditional legacy and the western modernism in the process of development. This article attempts to analyze the position and coordinates of such a discussion for second generation of intellectualism, i.e. a group of Iranian intelluctuals that had intellectual-political activity orienting toward the establishment of Pahlavi State. The first part of article analyzes the transition process of constitutional State to the theory of new authoritarian and absolute State and the combination of people, groups and publications that realized such evolution. The second part of article provides an image of controversies and views being common between this generation and about the issue of modernity and the way of confronting it. In this part of article, the views are classified under two approaches of “modernity with minimum Iranian manipulation” and “selection-based modernity and adaptation with native conditions” and views of figures and supporting groups have been explained. The last part of article answers to the origins of the lack of deepening the issues related to the issue of decadence and modernity in this generation and more focus on the more objective dimensions of renovation and the way of its realization.