Profile of an educational professor: Ali Shariatmadari

The article is about the life, studying, works, professional and social activities of Dr. Ali Shariatmadari, a professor of philosophy of education. Thick description, analysis, ethnosemantic and empathetic reflection were used to study the life and works of Dr. Ali Shariatmadari. His life and education coincide with significant social, cultural, political, and scientific-philosophical transformations in Iran and in the world. He was sensitive and optimistic about intellectual development and tried to persuade and realize the "philosophical spirit" and "critical/sound thought", unity of personality and coordination of action and opinion in one's life. He believed in education, teaching, and social justice based on the elements of indigenized culture, while idealizing and enlightening, enthusiastically welcoming scientific innovation, and paying attention to world science. Dr. Ali Shariatmadari should be regarded a hard-working educator and competent mentor. New generations consider him an "unfinished project" that wants to be a window, a beginning and not all the way, not the only way, not just the only reading of indigenized perspective.

 This article is about the life, education, works and professional and social activities of Dr. Ali Shariatmadari, a professor in the field of philosophy of education. Thick description, analysis as well as empathetic and accompanying reflection on “educational experience” in a broad sense, deal with the triad reciprocal determination (behavior, personality and ecology). The ecology of the humanities and contemporary Iranian philosophy have different branches: rational orientation, essentialism, justificationism and foundationalism. Justificationism is contextualized in the rationality of the legacy of Iranian and Islamic civilization, and the philosophical foundations of European empiricism (continental and non-continental), as well as Dewey and post Dewey (neo-pragmatism). The critical question is how all of these human and world heritages within education, science, and philosophy fit into the broader concept of "experience." Education is related to the quality, quantity, stability, nature of crisis and disaster, and real needs on the one hand, and the ability to act on the other, with the goals, methods, and process of educational experience, which is trans-institutional. Therefore, democracy/social cognition as well as cognition of social cognition and the level of activism are raised. (Kordloo and Ghaedi, 2014, p. 58). Shabani, while taking a paradigmatic position, has introduced the theory of transcendental realism as a suitable alternative to support scientific research in the field of education (2007). Khosrow Bagheri states the early Dewey, who is a sharp and serious scientist, continues to prefer the Hegelian dialectic of experience and the ideal of freedom (excluding unnecessary arrays and systemic tasks) over the Platonic dialectic. The pragmatists seek to overcome the obstructions and bottlenecks of pragmatism (Bagheri, 2014, p. 27). It can be interpreted as a combined methodology (Saei, 2013: 57).

 Examining the thoughts, life and record of education and coach requires two types of double cognition (doubled hermeneutics): first, the methodology of Dr. Shariatmadari's knowledge and scientific works about education, and second, cognition  of the knowledge of the ecology, society and the social and political system in relation to the subject of education.It is well known that questioning is the virtue of thought. The period of his life and education coincides with a change in the spirit of the time (Genius Saeculi/Zeitgeist, Genius loci) and significant social, cultural, political, scientific-philosophical and educational transformations in Iran and the world. A wide field of philosophical critical thinking deals with education, confrontational, artistic, dialectical narratives of thought and divergent narratives to solve problems with ambiguities or common conflicts and contrasts. Critical thinking and philosophical spirit de-improvise the common improvised concepts and reveal the importance of education, "other", others, interaction, culture, language, community and institution to the person and the organization and its limitations. Critical thinking discloses the dangers of self-centered individualism/vertical individualism and raises the possibility of transcendence to horizontal individualism/social understanding and to smooth the synergistic growth of the individuality and the collectivity. It is through education that one gives identity to oneself and the world.

 Ali Shariatmadari was born in 1923 in a religious family. He completed his primary and secondary education in Shiraz. From 1942 to1949, he was a school teacher (Goodarzi, 2008). "After the Islamic Revolution, Ali Shariatmadari was appointed to the Ministry of Higher Education in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan. Along with Mustafa Moin, Ahmad Ahmadi and Abdulkarim Soroush, Shariatmadari tried to Islamize the universities (Wikipedia). He was sensitive and optimistic about intellectual aspects of the transformations, and advocated the pursuit and realization of the "philosophical spirit", rational reflection, sound thought, unity of character, and harmony of action and opinion within and in the environment. The focus of the study of Dr. Ali Shariatmadari's works can be considered as the main issues of education, socialization, philosophical spirit, problem-solving method and rational method. Dr. Shariatmadari considered teachers as "custodians of education" (Shariatmadari, Zekavati, a.2013). Real education could be trans-institutional, related to life, quality, quantity, stability, nature of approach of anthropology, suffering, paining, crisis, disaster, real needs, goals, styles, process of experience and the ability to act. He organized and promoted some of the disciplines of education and was eager for the instructing method and process to be used for both effectives.

Double hermeneutic is the recognition of the nature of cognition (theoretical validity of educational science) and "cognition of social cognition" (perception of people and stakeholders of education). The failure of these two cognitions leads to disruption of individual, collective, organizational, social action and crises. Zekavati suggested that conditions be provided for scientific actors to enter the field of action directly (Zekavati, b 2012, pp. 215-214). Social cognition prevails over the spirit of time, the spirit of place, the preconditions of society, patterns of civilization, education, patterns of assumptions, social control, and more specifically possibilities and limitations. Cognition of social cognition contains the objective, tangible aspect, the arrangement of social forces, ranks, stakeholder groups, social stratification and satisfaction with justice for the distribution of possibilities and common understanding of language, its truly, symbolic, virtual and interpretive meaning. Mahmoud Mehr Mohammadi quotes Shariatmadari that the reform of education should be the priority of the government. According to Edgar Morin: "The essence of complexity is to step into complexity so it leads you forward" (translated by Nickpey, 2014). Avoiding reductionism, distortion, cognitive errors and possible misunderstandings requires a constant, relentless effort from educators to formulate the dynamics of vitality of life and thoughts, in the words of philosophers: "always on the way/ peregrination". Dr. Ali Shariatmadari should be considered as a hard-working educator and at the same time an unfinished project.