THE 4TH HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOCIAL SCIENCE: "A STUDY OF MOHAMMED ARKOUN'S POLITICAL ETHIC"
Abstract
The writing of this paper was at least motivated by several reasons: first, Mohammed Arkoun is
one of the postmodern/contemporary Moslem scholars (2st1 century) –after the era of Modernist
Moslems such as Abduh and Ridha—who owns authority to re-establish the ‘submerged iceberg’
of the rich potential of Islamic thought. Second, in comparison with other scholars, Arkoun is a
Moslem philosopher with ability to combine “Islamic authenticity” and the broad knowledge of
contemporary social sciences. From within his academic visions he gave birth to the Applied
Islamology. Third, Arkoun is a Moslem scholar who experienced a life among two
traditions—since his childhood—Islam (Aljazair) and France (western) that definitely had great
influence on his attempt at creating future Islamic study which aims to link many facets of both
aforementioned civilizations, whereas at the same time many other Moslem philosophers—with
few exceptions—would rather conflict the two instead.
This research employs a philosophical approach by borrowing from Jacques Derrida’s analysis
method, Muhammad Sa’id al-‘Asmawy, Paul Ricoeur and Anthony Giddens. Several
methodologies presented here include descriptive, historic, comparative and synthetical analysis
methodologies. Meanwhile data gathering is based on library research, covering both the writings
of Mohammed Arkoun himself and other writings by different people relevant to this study.