Taha Abdurrahman

Taha Abderrahmane (; born 28 May 1944) is a Moroccan philosopher and one of the leading philosophers and thinkers in the Arab and Islamic worlds. His work centers on logic, philosophy of language, moral philosophy, and contractarian ethics. He believes in multiple modernities and seeks to establish an ethical and humanitarian modernity based on the values and principles of Islam and the Arab tradition.

Early life and education Abderrahmane was born on 28 May 1944 and raised in El Jadida (province of El Jadida), Morocco. There, he attended primary school, after which he moved to Casablanca, where he continued his high school education. He later joined Mohammad V University (in Rabat, Morocco), where he obtained his licentiate in philosophy. Abderrahmane completed his studies at the University of Sorbonne, where he received his second licentiate and obtained his third-level doctorate in 1972 on the subject: "Language and philosophy: a study of the linguistic structures of ontology", and in 1985 he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy on the subject "study of argumentation and its methods" (in French: Essai sur les logiques des raisonnements argumentatifs et naturels, or in English as "Essay on the logic of argumentative and natural reasonings").

In addition to speaking Arabic, French, and English, he also reads German, Latin and Ancient Greek in order to read philosophers in their original languages.

Abderrahmane is known in all his books as "Taha Abderrahmane", although his given name is Abderrahmane and his family name is Taha. Scholars in the Anglophone world often repeat "Abderrahmane" as if it were his family name, following the way it appears in his books, while in the Arab world, his philosophy is known under the name "Taha'iyya", i.e., "Taha'ian". The official spelling of his name in official documentation is Abderrahmane (not Abdurrahman or Abdul Rahman).

Academic career Abderrahmane served as a professor of philosophy of language and logic at Mohammad V University from 1970 until his retirement in 2005. He is a member of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, which he represents in Morocco; a representative of the Society of Intercultural Philosophy (German: Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Philosophie); and director of the Wisdom Circle for Thinkers and Researchers.

Abderrahmane was awarded the Prize of Morocco twice. In 2006, he received the ISESCO Prize in Islamic thought and philosophy.

Characteristics of his method His philosophical practice is characterized by a combination of "logical analysis" and "linguistic derivation" proceeding from a mystical experience, within a framework that provides the concepts related to the Islamic heritage and is based on the most important achievements of modern Western thought at the level of "theories of speech", "argumentative logic", and "philosophy of ethics", which makes his philosophizing predominantly appear in a "moral" and "deliberative" style.

Most important works Language and philosophy: an essay on the linguistic structures of ontology (in French), 1979 A treatise on deductive and natural argumentation and its models (in French), 1985 Formal Logic and Grammar, 1985 On the basics of Dialogue and Renovation of Islamic Theology, 1987 Religious Practice and Renewal of Reason, 1989 Renovation of the Method in Assessing the Heritage, 1994 Praxeology of Philosophy I: Philosophy and Translation, 1994 Language and Balance, or Multiplicity of Reason, 1998 Praxeology of Philosophy II.1: The Philosophical Sentence, the Book of the Concept and Etymology, 1999 The Question of Ethics: A Contribution to Ethical Criticism of Western Modernity, 2000 Dialogues for the Future, 2000 The Arabic Right to Differ in Philosophy, 2002 The Islamic Right to Be Intellectually Different, 2005 The Spirit of Modernity: An Introduction to Founding Islamic Modernity, 2006 Modernity and Resistance, 2007 The Question of Practice, 2012 The Spirit of Religion, 2012 Dialogue as Horizon of Thought, 2013 The Poverty of Secularism, 2014 The Question of Method: Toward a New Paradigm in Thinking, 2015 The Post-Secularism: A Critique of the Separation Between Ethics and Religion, 2016 The Wandering of the Post-Secularism, 2016 The Religion of Decency, 2017 Ethical Concepts Between Fiduciarism and Secularism, 2 volumes, 2021 Sharia Objectives from Fiduciary Ethics Perspective, 2022 The Question of Philosophical Autobiography: An Inquiry into Fiduciary Philosophy, 2023