Just published
La Tunisie sous la plume des voyageurs
à l’époque moderne
(1492-1789)
L’avènement de Hussein Bey
Fondateur de la Dynastie Husseinite
(1705-1706)
Collected Poems etc.
The book contains a collection of letters and texts of creative writing in both poetry and prose, which Mr. Béchir Ben Slama had buried for “close to seventy years”, as he stated in the preface. For this reason, the book provides rich material for critics and researchers interested in the dawn of the writer’s process of creative writing. In brief, these poems and texts express the concern of a poet who was, in the words of Abu Attaieb Al Muntanabbi, “as if wind-borne”, and the perplexity of a writer concerned from the beginning of his writing with issues of public affairs.
Suffering and Creation: Facts and Fiction
The book is concerned with the organic relationship between suffering and creation. It is a collection of papers by academic specialists of clinical and pathological psychology, interested in the psychology of creation, the experience of tragedy, and the conscious and unconscious motives in the different areas of innovation. Indeed, the studies analyze the component parts of artistic practice and transcendence and elevation through creation and innovation. The book also includes sociological and historical approaches to the philosophical concepts of art and mythology, and forms of expression that strive to break free from dominating pressures to achieve the representation of being. Indeed, creation is an alternative existential experience that rejects ordered existence and constraining social arrangements.
Utopia Today
What is the meaning of utopian tendencies today? What illustrates the legitimacy of aspiring to ideals? What are the differences between purely imaginary utopia and utopian thought that can be materialized? How can the arts draw on meaning that may be mythical?
The book looks into the meanders of these problematics. Tunisian and European academics and researchers look into the historical courses of utopia, and the differences between utopian tendencies steeped in abstraction and utopian ideas that have an impact on events, such as the utopia that lies at the heart of dissident arts and the foundation of alternative existential experiences, particularly in contexts ruled by repressive forces and reactionary ideologies.
The Beginnings of Modern Political Thought
Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau
The book deals with works concerned with modern political thought, as the contemporary French philosopher Pierre Manent devoted it to philosophers who were the founding fathers of that thought and its several beginnings. The first beginning is related to the founder of realistic political thought, the Italian philosopher Machiavelli. According to the book, the latter broke with traditional political philosophy, based on moral advice. In his opinion, political thought depends on its real context, and for this reason, Pierre Manent considers Machiavelli as the legitimate father of scientific observation in the political field. The author also considers that the second beginning came with the English philosopher Hobbes who believes in the necessity of basing political science on scientific rules, and this bolstered up the first beginning by institutionalizing political practice for the sake of a contractual political system. The third beginning, embodied in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s political philosophy, expresses the moral vacuum of the Enlightenment man essentially for reasons related to social upbringing. Human nature, indeed, is good, but the social fabric corrupts it. For this reason, Rousseau places political particulars in their real contexts, so that we could infer the break between these beginnings and utopian political thought.
The Development of Scientific Thought and Experimental Teaching Methods
Do our educational institutions fulfil their educational mission consistent with the new educational teaching methods? And what conditions would rigorous thought set for breaking free from dogmatism? How does one move away from conventional teaching methods? The Development of Scientific Thought and Experimental Teaching Methods deals with these issues as discussed in the proceedings of a national symposium organized by the natural science and mathematics department of the “Beit El Hikma” Tunisian Academy of Science, Literature and Art on 11-12 October 2018. The book includes scientific approaches by academic educationalists and international experts in experimental teaching methods and modern curricula.
In its recommendations, the book stresses the necessity to move away from conventional curricula to foster critical thought and dynamic teaching methods so as to guarantee scientific thought, reject passive ingurgitation and all forms of fanaticism.
The Beit El Hikma Lectures
2017-2018
The book includes the proceedings of intellectual approaches, literary studies and scientific research work presented by select specialist academics and researchers at study days, symposia and weekly meetings organised by the scientific departments of the Tunisian “Beit El Hikma” Academy of Science, Literature and Art in the years 2017-2018. The book contents centre on literary, cultural and linguistic issues, as well as reformist thought and recent scientific research related to development challenges and proficiency science.
From Mustapha Abdul Razak’s Published and Uncollected Works
Mustapha Abdul Razak is one of the founders of scientific methods in Arab philosophical research, favouring the use of new Western theories, such as the philological and historical approaches. He is also a staunch opponent of intellectual rigidity and one of the most important proponents of rationalism. These are the contents of From Mustapha Abdul Razak’s Published and Uncollected Works edited by Abdullah Zrelli.
The book includes a large variety of texts by Mustapha Abdul Razak (1885-1947), including interviews, letters and introductions to literary and philosophical works, as well as lectures given in scholarly symposia and literary conferences expressing his modernist turn of mind, rejecting the domination of the religious mindset. Indeed, in his opinion, we can only free ourselves from dogmatism by “combating the manifestations of scientific rigidity”.
Pleasure for the Ears in the Art of Sama’
The book brings out the creative value of Ahmad Ben Youssef Al Tifashi in the sixth and seventh centuries Hijri, as it includes numerous documents relating to poetry and the rules of dancing and singing in palaces, and shows the place of literary salons and celebratory rituals based on practical experience as opposed to funereal perception, and founding creative work on depth and aesthetic value. The book liberates the minds from “the illusions of detestable bigotry and crude ideological instrumentalization that had become associated with Islam and Muslims” as stated in the introduction by Dr Abdelmajid Charfi. For this reason, Pleasure for the ears in the art of Sama’ is an important reference that makes known an innovator who was not the object of sufficient attention by researchers in spite of the richness of his experience and the boldness of his views that defied social conventions and prevalent moral standards.
