Iranian Religious Intellectuals and the Modernization Debate

The success story of the west has encouraged nations of the world to take up the goals and the style of the west in development. The west has, on the other hand, imposed its values and cultures as the universally acceptable norms in the world, especially in the developing and the underdeveloped east without considering the pre-existing culture and traditions of the host countries. Despite all this, the West itself has come to the conclusion that science and development cannot be purely positive and leaving solely good consequences as it can ultimately cause alienation with the self and greed comes as a result of it. On the other hand the Easterners have found out that the imported technology and modernity is not neutral to their own culture, requiring a certain amount of perquisite norms to be accepted. This new look toward the west made theorists rediscover their thoughts on the matter and its essence for the eastern countries. Some thinkers realized that technology itself is not in essence bad or evil, but it is the practice which makes it so. It is believed by another group of thinkers that as modernity has been cultivated in a certain cultural atmosphere, it cannot be neutral to the cultures and traditions in other nations. This essay tries to define and understand these two ideas, the reasoning behind them and their consequences for development in the developing world. Finally,, the ideas of a number of religious thinkers on the matter will be discussed. Key Word: Modernity, Religious Intellectuals, Technology, Selective Modernization.