Toward a Definition of Persian Culture

 

 

Speaker: Professor Ramin Jahanbegloo, Vice Dean and Executive Director, Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Peace Studies, Jindal Global Law School

 

Discussant and Moderator: Dr. Come Carpentier

 

In his famous essay Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, T.S. Eliot asks the central question on “the essential conditions for the growth and for the survival of culture.” This question is today ours and we need to ask it in relation with the Persian culture.  We need to ask if there are any standards by which we can compare Persian civilization with another, and by which we can make some guess at the improvement or decline of it. The ancient Greeks feared the Persians but looked upon them as a great civilization. Where does the Persian civilization stand today? How does it differ from the Persian culture? What is the most profound element of the Persian civilization? This is a question that every Iranian should be able to answer. But in order to answer these questions, we need to have a better understanding of the two concepts of “culture” and “civilization”

 

(Collaboration: Parzor Foundation)