Historical Studies

Historical Studies

The Philosophy of History from the Viewpoint of Reza Davari Ardakani

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Fateme Ahmadi 1
Seyed Javad Miri 2
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
2 Professor, Research Group of Theoretical Sociology, Faculty of Social Studies, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS), Tehran, Iran
10.30465/hcs.2025.52689.3056
Abstract
Abstract
This article argues from the perspective of Social Critical Theory that understanding Reza Davari Ardakani’s philosophy of history requires a fundamental break from common, modern conceptions of history. His approach, moving beyond “Theoretical Philosophy” and the “Critical Philosophy of History,” closely aligns with the Heideggerian understanding of history as Fate. Davari shifts the central inquiry from the epistemological question of “How to know history” to the ontological question of “Our existential relationship with history and human destiny within it.” Davari’s intellectual system hinges on the concept of an “ontological and epistemological break,” defining history not as a continuous flow, but as a series of discontinuous worlds. From his perspective, the historical event of Westoxification has manifested as a destiny that reduces tradition and the past to a “museum object” and afflicts contemporary man with the “pain of lacking historicity”. This condition, intensified by the ontological dominance of Technology, represents a decline-a movement away from authenticity and a resultant existential crisis. Davari’s philosophy of history is not an attempt to discover historical laws, but an existential and hermeneutical invitation to “Thought” concerning this break and the resulting nihilistic situation. His core concern is discerning the conditions for the “possibility and impossibility of thought” for the historical ‘us’ amidst this fractured world, and questioning human destiny within this historical fate.
Keywords: Philosophy of History, Ontological Break, Fat, Human Being, Technology, Lack of Historicity, Authenticity.
 
Introduction
The present article aims to undertake a comprehensive, elucidative analysis of Reza Davari Ardakani’s philosophy of history, specifically by positioning his core arguments within the sophisticated conceptual framework of Social Critical Theory. Davari’s intellectual project is profoundly distinct from conventional Iranian philosophical and historical discourses due to its radical and consistent disavowal of modern, linear, and progress-driven accounts of history. While much of the Iranian intellectual landscape, across both traditionalist and modernist camps, remains preoccupied with interpreting historical events, discovering historical laws, or articulating a trajectory toward development, Davari’s work signifies a fundamental theoretical shift. This shift moves the focus from historie (the study of facts and chronology) to the interrogation of the existential and ontological ground of human being within history, or Geschichtlichkeit (historicity).
The central analytical hypothesis of this paper is that Davari’s critique-often articulated through terms like “Westoxification” and “ahistoricity”-functions as a localized manifestation of a global phenomenon: the “ontological and epistemological break.” This concept serves as the decisive lens through which Davari views the present age, particularly the complex and traumatic Iranian encounter with global modernity. This perspective posits that the very question of historical understanding is inseparable from the human condition of Fate in the age of global, planetary technology. His philosophy is not concerned with what happened, but with how the modern technological age conditions the very possibility and impossibility of human thought, being, and history itself. By utilizing the lens of Critical Theory-which traces domination and alienation to structural causes-we seek to uncover the depth and radicality of Davari’s critique of the prevailing historical paradigm.
 
Materials and Methods
This study employs a multi-faceted methodology that is both essential and appropriate for interpreting complex philosophical and critical texts. The primary approach is analytical-critical and hermeneutic, necessary for engaging with a body of work (Davari’s writings) that is deeply rooted in Continental thought, particularly the phenomenological and ontological traditions of Martin Heidegger, and then applying this tradition to the critique of modern Iranian society and its historical consciousness.
The research draws extensively on Davari’s primary works published throughout the 1990s and 2000s, concentrating on texts that explicitly or implicitly address the concepts of history, modernity, technology, thought, and the notion of the “West.” The interpretive process involves several crucial steps: First, identifying and clarifying the specific linguistic and philosophical shifts Davari employs-for instance, the crucial Heideggerian distinction between history (historie) as a sequence of occurrences and historicity (Geschichtlichkeit) as the way in which Being reveals itself to Dasein. Second, analyzing how Davari’s critique of Westoxification functions not as a political or sociological complaint, but as the primary empirical manifestation of the underlying ontological break in the Iranian context.
Furthermore, the theoretical framework of Critical Theory-derived from the Frankfurt School (Horkheimer, Adorno)-is strategically employed. This framework allows us to assess the existential and societal implications of this ontological break on concepts central to Critical Theory, such as alienation, authenticity, and the destructive tendency to reduce authentic cultural heritage and tradition to a mere “museum object”, stripped of its life-giving force and historical efficacy. The hermeneutic task, therefore, is to reveal Davari’s philosophy not merely as an intellectual exercise but as a powerful diagnostic tool for the profound crisis of historical consciousness in the age of technology.
 
Discussion and Results
The analytical results decisively establish that Davari Ardakani’s philosophy of history is fundamentally founded upon the recognition of History as Discontinuity. His argument vehemently challenges the dominant notion of a continuous, unified, and evolving historical stream that progresses inevitably toward a predetermined end (e.g., development, freedom, or the End of History). Instead, Davari proposes a series of distinct “worlds” or epochs (Ages of Being)-each characterized by a unique mode of the revelation of Being-that stand in profound discontinuity with one another.
This discontinuity is concretized, in the specific Iranian encounter with modernity, by the event of Westoxification. Davari interprets Westoxification not as a shallow or reversible social, political, or economic condition, but as an inexorable Fate that dictates the conditions of existence for contemporary man. This fate has profound critical consequences on the human historical consciousness:
1. Alienation from Tradition: It has profoundly alienated modern human beings from their tradition, turning the rich, living past into something foreign and external.
2. The Museum Object: This alienation reduces their past to an inert, examinable, and disposable “museum object,” devoid of its power to guide thought or action.
3. The Pain of Lacking Historicity: The ultimate result is the pervasive suffering known as the “pain of lacking historicity”- a profound existential affliction where man loses his historical ground, becoming rootless and incapable of authentic self-understanding.
Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates how this existential and historical crisis is fundamentally linked to the ontological dominance of Technology. Davari consistently argues that technology is not simply a set of tools (Instrumentality) but the all-encompassing, overarching framework (Gestell/Enframing) for the revealing and concealing of Being in the modern epoch. This technological framework intensifies the nihilistic situation, driving the modern subject further away from authenticity and deeper into a homogenized world where everything is reduced to a disposable resource (Standing Reserve).
Davari’s thought, therefore, is fundamentally a philosophy of human history rooted in this existential crisis. It is not designed-like the philosophies of Hegel or Marx-to discover general historical laws or predict the future. Its true purpose is to serve as an existential and hermeneutical invitation to “Thought”. This invitation is an urgent call for reflection that aims to understand the conditions for the possibility and impossibility of authentic thought within the fractured, technological world. It is a philosophy that diagnoses the illness of the present to find a path toward a new beginning, which only opens when the present Age of Technology is understood in its full ontological scope.
 
 
 
Conclusion
Davari Ardakani’s philosophy of history provides a necessary, deep, and radical critique of modernity that bypasses and challenges both conservative and liberal traditional approaches in Iran. By centering the discourse on the ontological break-a fracture in the history of Being itself-and the concept of Fate rather than free human choice, he successfully shifts the focus from conventional historical epistemology (how we know history) to the core of human existence and destiny (how we are historical).
His work offers a profound and sobering diagnosis of the contemporary crisis: the devastating loss of historicity and authenticity under the hegemonic dominance of global technological rationality. The article concludes that Davari’s enduring significance lies not in offering political solutions or blueprints for development, but in his rigorous and sustained call for Thought. For Davari, Thought, in the deep philosophical sense, is the only viable path for the historical human ‘us’ to truly confront, come to terms with, and perhaps redefine our collective fate in the current, broken epoch. This commitment to deep philosophical reflection is his ultimate contribution to Critical Social Theory.
Keywords
Philosophy of History
Ontological Break
Fat
Human Being
Technology
Lack of Historicity
Authenticity
Subjects
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Historical Studies
Volume 17, Issue 1 - Serial Number 33
Spring and Summer 2026-2027
April 2026
Pages 355-389

  • Receive Date 09 August 2025
  • Revise Date 14 September 2025
  • Accept Date 11 October 2025