Culture and Ideology

Japamese Translation and Comments on the Text

Abstract

This book（Culture and Ideology）is a transcript of the lecture which Dr. Ali Shariati gave to university students and his supporters in Iran. In his lecture, he tried to show the differences and similarities between culture and civilization. In his analysis, both culture and civilization are universal, and are neither restricted to nor are inherent in Western countries. Of course, culture has the aspect of the peculiarity to the ethnic group who produced it, and those peculiarities are related to some outlooks or the frameworks of thinking such as science, technology, art, philosophy and so forth. But he emphasizes that they do not have enough power to generate culture. As a matter of fact, culture is based on the ideology which is brought only by talented persons or men of ability who have self-consciousness. What is more, it is often combined with religious factors. Those people are not of noble birth but are often of the lowest class in their societies. Once these people appear on the scene, they tend to have the great influences on their societies with their vigor and energy. Dr. Ali Shariati interpreted Arabic “Hekmat” as self-consciousness, and described “Ommi”（people possessing Hekmat）as those who have the ability to acquire self-consciousness. Whoever reads Dr. Ali Shariati's lecture will soon find it is safe to assume that he is one who has the true self-consciousness.