History

Discussing two common critiques on theological interpretations of the concept of the highest good in Kant’s moral philosophy in his paper, Two Conceptions of the Highest Good in Kant, Reath has invited readers to have a secular interpretation of this concept and pointed out its advantages. In the present paper, we will attempt to provide the main principles of Reath’s claims and demonstrate why Kant has stated both of these interpretations in all of his critical works—a subject that has confused Reath. For this purpose, we will indicate that in both of the above interpretations, Kant has offered the concept of the highest good in a historical context, in which the intellectual idea of the highest good as a desired ultimate totality makes the intellect to grow in history and cultivate the talents of human kind through numerous conflicts embedded in nature.

As there is a great improvement in technology, the demand for innovative ways of delivering education is increasing and this has led to changes in learning and teaching methods. Distance education, which is so different from traditional education, consists of studying from home where students and teachers are physically distant while classroom learning is the type of education system in which the learners and the teachers work under one roof. Electronic means are used to keep students in touch with teachers, provide access to communication between students and bridge the gap and distribute educational material though distance learning programs. Both learning systems have their own advantages and disadvantages. Choosing between these two learning methods highly depends on learners’ requirements. In this paper, the researcher aims to discuss history and theories of distance learning, review literature on distant learning, state advantages and disadvantages of distance learning, express implications of the study to learners and teachers, and finally mention suggestions for improving distance learning.

Through time, there has been a deep and complex relationship between history and geography. Today also most sub-branches of geography need to take history into consideration. In the meantime, since the invention of the term political geography, there has been a deep relationship between the discipline of political geography and history. However, explanation of this relationship has less been attempted by political geographers. The present study is a theoretical basic research which uses analytic-descriptive approach to investigate the impact of “history” and “historical factors” on the making of political geography. The results indicate that the way history and historical factors are used and the goals pursued by taking them into account in the paradigms and philosophical-intellectual views imparted into political geography have been different. History has played a major role in the thoughts offered in almost all views and approaches of political geography so that by removing this factor, many of the analyses in political geography would be incomplete.

Man's past condition is related to his present life and history means surveying the quality of the past activities whose traces remain in the present time. The main field of historical research is man's past life, the stages which have been put behind in the process of evolution and changes as well as progresses made in these stages. History is a means to provide human beings with a complete insight into the events under study. Also another subject matter of history is discovering the common relations between the events, but the reconstruction of common relations is an essential part of this subject. History revives the forgotten events and by studying the cultural legacies we come to know about human past. History cannot properly play its cultural role in the form of event recording and mentioning wars and successes and only through philosophical perspective and understanding of causal relations it is possible to achieve historical goals. History is a science that studies human in the course of its evolution. And with developing connection and understanding of the causal relations of events it works with whys and states of events and by reconstructing the past cultural legacy, shows what had gone upon past inhabitants. Culture and civilization and its course in the human history is the best presentation of human development and progress and is the truest part of human history in whose course of development all members of the society take part. In the light of the above, the present article is an attempt to cast a quick look at the contribution of history to the understanding of cultures and civilizations.

This research paper is an investigation of Khaled Hosseini’s seminal fiction The Kite Runner from the perspective of New Historicist approach of reading a literary work. The concepts of history and discourse, recurrently employed by Foucault, Montrose, and Greenblatt, provide the theoretical background of the present research. The plot of the novel is devoted to presenting a vivid picture of the socio-cultural conditions of Afghanistan at the period of war and crisis. During the time, many wars and conflicts were imposed upon Afghanistan for the interests of foreign powers. Russia invaded Afghanistan, and it ended up in Taliban war, hunger, uncertainty in the subjects’ lives, and refugees question. Russian army had destroyed the village, school, and natural resources of Afghanistan while America indirectly dominated there to support the Taliban against Russia in the cold war period. The Kite Runner including historical facts about Afghanistan’s multi-layered conditions, let the readers face the true nature of war, terrorism, and Taliban in the country. Exploring the cultural crisis and ethnic conflict represented in the novel is conducted in a close association with the New Historicist’s concept of “textuality of history and historicity of text”.

The writing of Iranian architectural history has, from its start, followed the principles of western historiography. Portions of this history are well expected to be neglected or unattended when writing of it takes place outside its intellectual framework that essentially reflects the Iranian throught world. To have a truly Iranian architectural historiography, one has to find the theoretical principles which are deeply rooted in the Iranian Islamic culture. Although pre-modern Iranian historians never wrote a history of architecture, they were exponents of historiography during a millennium of cultural flourishing and vigor. Since any sort of historiography, as well as literature, usually is based on principles and ideological views about history and time, Persian historic texts can be considered as worthy sources regarding theoretical bases on which we can build the Iranian philosophy of architectural history. Persian prose of the early centuries of Islam is among these sources. One of the common, prominent themes in these texts is the nature of time or history. It is presented as a sensible, living being whose states relate to human events and phenomena across time. A new theory of periodization of Iranian architectural history can be drawn based upon this theory.

The present study aimed to analyse the process that caused revolutionary rationality. Revolutionary rationality supported extreme action in the years 1356-57. Shia political thought through the centuries has developed fertile and deep rationality in various fields of knowledge such as philosophy, history, mysticism and jurisprudence. "Philosophical Rationality" means that religion is interpreted with philosophy and given a philosophical form. "Jurisprudential Rationality" is the proven reason that establishes the goodness of religious rules and command. "Historical Rationality" identifies the principles and regulations behind the events of history, and "Mystical Rationality" is the expression of mystical meanings through rational style. Revolutionary rationality is rooted in the above principles. This rationality interacted with revelation and supported it, and had a relationship with other ideas, including the thought system in the old and new West, and emerged during the Islamic Revolution. Revolutionary rationality was manifested in the words of the revolutionary leaders in explaining the objective situation of society and politics, as well as in drawing the future of the revolution. The theoretical and methodological basis of this research is discourse analysis and its result, explaining the achievements of this rationality in overcoming the political order of Taghut and the birth of the Shia political order.

Education in the Qajar era had been considered in Iran, especially in Tabriz. Most kind people tried to help scientific development and performed many educational and cultural efforts. The establishment of printing, translation skills, publishing the newspapers, and new schools were the first efforts that had been made in Tabriz. Education was in maktab forms until Nasereldin Shah and had many limitations, but there were more than 100 maktabs in Tabriz; most of the people were poor, the number of pupils was a few, and the lessons were religious. The classes in maktabs were held in houses and mosques. Every maktab had characteristics. The methods of teaching were not equal. The teachers in maktabs had some notable qualifications. The maktabs in that period had many problems. The curriculum in maktabs involved Quranic instructions, Arabic grammar and some religious passages. In that period, some new schools were established by Iranian Muslims, such as Roshdieh, Mozafari, Loghmanieh, Mellieh, Kamal and Sanaye Mostazrafe.

Chronogram is the conversion of numbers and figures of history into letters, words and terms. Due to its development and growth, especially in the Safavid period, this technique has become a complex form and has gradually attracted politicians` attention and has been used directly in historical developments to prove their legitimacy, as well as their confrontation against their opponents. The use of the chronogram and the attempt to reconcile it with the rise of the Safavids, the accession of Shah Ismail, the formation of Shah Tahmasb's army, some of the Indian conquests during the reign of Shah Abbas and accession of Nader are some of these historical approaches which will be discussed in this study. In addition to stating a specific part of history, some of these chronograms, also indirectly reveal some hidden social and historical issues that can be used in historical analysis.