A Re-examination of Professor Motahari's Philosophical Viewpoint on Nationalism as a Component of Iranian Modernity

Modernity is one of the key concepts discussed by Professor Morteza Motahari. Of course, modernity has various aspects and in this study, we will focus on the collective issue or narrative of Iranian nationalism and Motahari's criticisms on it. Motahari does not narrate the concept of Iranianness in the form of "Aryan race" and says that the conceptualization of Iranianness in the form of Aryanism alienates the majority of the Iranian nation and this alienation is against the real national interests of Iran. Why does Motahari say this? What is Motahari's basis for this conceptualization? Does he not pay attention to the fact that his words are against the discourse of extreme nationalism? Does he not think about Iranian nationality? What are the Motahari's reasons who is a first class philosopher? Professor Motahari's answer is very surprising. It is true that he is not an anthropologist in the academic sense of the word. However, his answer is derived from a deep anthropology and his experimental understanding of Iran's pluralistic society, which is rooted in his philosophical worldview and this worldview, formulates the problem of society under historical developments and sees the relationship between religion and society as heavily involved in the construction of national affairs and national identity. The research method in this article is based on critical content analysis method.