Aramesh Doostdar, Prominent Iranian Intellectual, Passes Away

Aramesh Doostdar passed away at his home in the city of Cologne at the age of 90. According to acquaintances, Aramesh Doostdar had been ill in recent months and years, and had virtually suspended most of his activities and intellectual work.

Doostdar was born in 1310 in the Persian calendar. He completed his philosophical studies in Germany. He received his doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Bonn in 1350 in the Persian calendar. Doostdar’s doctoral thesis addressed “the relationship between ethics and the will to power in Nietzsche’s works.”

Doostdar taught philosophy at Tehran University for several years until, following the closure of universities and the Cultural Revolution, he was expelled from the university and permanently returned to Germany, where he settled.

He was considered one of the rarest critics of religious culture in Iran and for this reason was unique and incomparable among all intellectuals. The criticism in Doostdar’s works was relentless. Many disliked his uncompromising nature, but his criticism was connected to a deep crisis that, in his view, had gripped the entire history and culture of Iran.

Among his works, one can point to “The Impediment of Thought in Religious Culture,” “Philosophical Considerations on Religion and Science,” “Dark Radiances,” “Hidden Kinship,” and “Language and Pseudo-Language of Culture and Pseudo-Culture.”

Deutsche Welle Farsi previously produced a documentary about Aramesh Doostdar that addressed various aspects of his personal life and intellectual activities.

Source: DW