Moroccan philosopher
Taha Abderrahmane, (born on 28 May 1944) [1][2] is a Moroccan philosopher, and one of the leading philosophers and thinkers in the Arab and Islamic worlds. His work centers on logic, philosophy of language and philosophy of morality and contractarian ethics. He believes in multiple modernities and seeks to establish an ethical and humanitarian modernity based on the values and principles of Islam and the Arab tradition.[3]
Early life and education
Taha Abderrahmane was born on 28 May 1944, and raised in El Jadida (province of El Jadida) there he went to basic school, after that he moved to Casablanca where he continued his high school, and then he joined the Mohammed V University (Rabat, Morocco) where he obtained his licentiate in philosophy. He completed his studies at the university of Sorbonne where he received his second licentiate and obtained his doctoral third level in the year of 1972 on the subject: "Language and philosophy: a study of the linguistic structures of ontology", and in 1985 he earned his Ph.D. in the philosophy on the subject "study of argumentation and its methods" (in French: Essai sur les logiques des raisonnements argumentatifs et naturels, or in English as "Essay on the logic of argumentative and natural reasonings").[4]
In addition to speaking Arabic, French and English, he also reads German, Latin and Ancient Greek[5] - in order to read philosophy authors in their original language.
Two notes on the name: First, he is known in all his books as Taha Abderrahmane, though his first name is Abderrahmane and Taha is his family name; scholars in English often repeat "Abderrahmane" as if it were his family name, following the way it appears in his books, while in the Arab world often the repeated name is Taha, and his philosophy is known as "Taha'iyya", i.e. "Taha'ian". Second, the right and official spelling of his name in his official documents is Abderrahmane, and not Abdurrahman or Abdul Rahman.
Career in academia
Abderrahmane served as a professor of philosophy of language and logic at Mohammed V University from 1970 until his retirement in 2005. He is a member of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation which he represents in Morocco, representative of Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Philosophie / Society of Intercultural Philosophy, and director of Wisdom Circle for Thinkers and Researchers.
He was awarded the Prize of Morocco twice, and in 2006 the ISESCO Prize in Islamic thought and philosophy.
Characteristics of his method
His philosophical practice is characterized by a combination of "logical analysis" and "linguistic derivation" proceeding a mystical experience, in a framework to provide the concepts related to the Islamic heritage and based on the most important achievements of modern Western thought on the level of "theories of speech" and "argumentative logic" and "philosophy of ethics", which makes his philosophizing predominantly appearing in a "moral" and "deliberative" style.
