Mohammed Arkoun was an Algerian Language professional, educator, scholar and thinker.
Background
Arkoun, Mohammed was born on February 1, 1928 in Taourirt-Mimoun, Algeria. He was a son of Lounès and Dehbia (Mokdad) Arkoun. His family were traditional religious and relatively poor. His father was a shopkeeper in Ain al-Arba'a, a wealthy French settlement in east of Oran.
Education
Mohammed received his education at the University of Algiers. He also made a doctoral research at the Sorbonne University, Paris on the thesis: Contemporary French thought and Islamic humanism.
Career
Mohammed started his career as an educator in 1951 at Lycee d’Al-Harrach, Algeria. Then he continued working as a professor in many Universities, such as University of Sorbonne, Paris 8 University, University of California, Université Louvain-la-Neuve, Princeton University, Temple University. He was a jury member at Aga Khan Award for Architecture since 1981 to 1998.
Views
Arkoun’s contribution to Islamic philosophy takes two distinguishable forms. In the first place he investigated the thought of Miskawayh, and argued that he represents an important trend in Islamic humanism. This tenth-century philosopher was impressed by the way in which philosophy, especially Platonic philosophy, could analyseaspects of human nature and morality, and he appears to give more weight to the approach of the philosophers as compared with the religious authorities.
Arkoun points to a tradition in Islamic philosophy which is both Islamic and humanist in that it derives the most significant principles of humanity from a consideration of the nature of that humanity while at the same time showing that such a notion is in accordance with the basic principles of Islam. The principles of reason are shown to accord with the principles of religion, and to a degree the validity of the latter is based upon the former.
In his approach to the understanding of the Qur an Arkoun employs the semiotic and semiological ideas current in modem French culture. This enables him to see the various sects in Islam as more than divergences from orthodoxy: that is, as aspects of the development of Islam as a tradition.
He argues that it is important for modern approaches to Islam to be employed, since Islam has nothing to fear from such methodologies and it is a great error to allow the religion to become fossilized as a result of a disinclination to use the theoretical techniques available through secular intellectual thought. Arkoun's work emphasizes the links between Islam and modernity, and he has thrown light on an important area of Islamic philosophy which was based upon the principles of humanism and which played an important role in the development of philosophical thought in the Islamic world.