The Importance of Peter Winch's Opinions and Thoughts in Understanding the Issues of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Behruz Salehi ¹
• Seyyed farshid Jafaribindi ²
• Mehdi Khoshkhati ³

¹ PhD student in Political Science, Zanjan branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Zanjan branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran

³ Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran

Abstract

Highlights

1-Introduction

The analysis of issues in the field of humanities has always been done from the perspective of positive epistemology, which has obscured the knowledge of social phenomena and issues. In this research, Iran's social phenomena are investigated from a post-positivist and Peter Winch's intellectual perspectives. The understanding of social phenomena has certain complexities due to the assumption that the understanding of any society is possible based on the beliefs of that society. This complexity has made it very difficult to truly understand the phenomena.Understanding the political and cultural issues of Iranian society has a special place among the experts and political thinkers of Iran.  Therefore, this article seeks to answer the question, through which epistemology and social thinking can one achieve a reliable understanding of the political issues of the Islamic Republic of Iran?

The hypothesis of the article is that by applying post- positivist epistemology and especially Peter Winch's opinions, it is possible to gain a more reliable understanding of the political issues of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

2-Theoretical Framework

In order to understand social phenomena, the criteria of knowledge are extremely important to reach the truth. Unfortunately, it must be acknowledged that with the development of positive epistemology and considering human-social sciences as the same as natural sciences, the process of accurate knowledge of the phenomena of humanities and social sciences has been distorted. The nature of  human-social sciences is different from the nature of natural and empirical sciences , and therefore, the aims of natural- experimental sciences  can not be easily applied to socia- humanities  and and it 's not possible for social  scientists to assume the methods of natura scientists.Unlike the natural sciences in which the researcher can separate his/her subjective values and beliefs from the reality in the research process,in the human - social sciences the principles of neutrality and separation of values and reality cannot be possible.

In these sciences, the knower and the known are the same, and the researcher in the human and social sciences is not in the position of an observer, but is in the position of an actor, and therefore it is not possible for him to observe causality and neutrality.

The result of this research is that the research of human-social sciencesis is completely mixed with his mental interpretation. Unlike natural- empirical sciences, whose ultimate purpose is to obtain an empirical theory, the ultimate purpose of social-human sciences is to achieve normative thought. The main concern o this paper is that from the perspective of which knowledge, it is possible to recognize authentic and honest knowledge in the face of human-social phenomena .It seems that the positivist  knowledge  that ignores the inherent difference between human- social sciences and  the natural sciences and  works in the same way as natural- empirical sciences in the research of humanities, cannot be successful in understanding the problems of the society and providing solutions.

3-Methodology

For a more detailed investigation of this issue, a combination of content analysis and qualitative research has been used. The present article tries to use the methodological approach of Winch in order to understand the political and cultural issues of Iranian society. Peter Winch’s pinions and thoughts, with valid knowledge of social and human phenomena, have benefited from politics and culture to reach the state of society.Based on this question and hypothesis, this article is organized in two general parts and a conclusion. In the first part, it is necessary to discuss the opinions and thoughts of Peter Winch in the text of meta-affirmative epistemology. In the second part, Iran's issues, including Islamic-Shiite religious governance, the meaning of human rights, and democracy from the perspective of Winch's thought, have been discussed. In conclusion, the result of this research has been presented.

4-Discussion

A realistic understanding of Iran's political and cultural issues by major international powers, especially the United States and European powers such as England, France, and Germany, may not be possible considering their distance from Iran's issues. That is why the anti-Iranian policies of the great powers have always been defeated. The reason for these failures should be sought in the conventional perceptions ruling the Islamic Republic of Iran..

Politicians of great powers examine the issues of the Islamic Republic of Iran from the perspective of conventional perceptions of their societies, which has been formed over the course of eight hundred years, since the 12th century AD.

The conventional perceptions of Western civilization are based on the six concepts of secularism, humanism, individualism, liberalism, democracy, and capitalism. The reason for the lack of shared understanding should be summarized in the statement that the conventional perceptions in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is based on an Islamic-Shia religious state, are different from the conventional perceptions of the great powers that think within the framework of liberal democracy.

Therefore, due to the distance from Iran's issues, understanding of those issues has become problematic and this causes tension between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the great powers. In many cases, they interpreted the issues concerning with the Islamic Republic of Iran as "problems" that may endanger the interests of the great powers. This is rooted in the lack of understanding of the conventional perceptions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, the great powers deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran with the same principles as they deal with other governments in the world. Threfore, they have fundamental mistakes in understanding Iran's issues. In fact, the great powers understand the the issues of the Islamic Republic of Iran within the framework of the secular discourse and the modern Westphalian order, and therefore they are unable to properly understand those issues, so are unable to adopt a reasonable foreign policy towards the the country.

5-Conclusion and Suggestion

Understanding Iran and its issues should be done based on the rules of the post-Westphalian order instead of the Westphalian order.  In that case, there will be no need to make policies based on maximum pressure. If the great powers try to understand Iran's issues based on the Islamic-Shia conventional perceptions, they will see the country as a peaceful government that treat according to Islamic teachings and can appear as a model of a peaceful government in the international arena. This study has tried to analyze the conventional perceptions of the Islamic Republic of Iran based on the idea of "Peter Winch" to provide a realistic understanding of Iran's issues.to researchers and statesmen.

Keywords

• Peter Winch
• understanding
• rules
• conventional perception
• social philosophy
• epistemology‌
• post positivism