Emancipatory revolution and permanent revolution: A study into the semantic change of the concept of revolution in Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Author
amir Safari
PhD Student Tarbiat Modares University
10.22034/jcsc.2020.109001.1927
Abstract
In this article we are trying to explore two temporal layers in the concept of revolution in Iran. It’s my contention that simultaneity of the non-simultaneous, as expounded by the German historian Koselleck, made substantial changes in the concept of revolution. In its initial steps, the revolution in Iran was a political revolution which was aimed at establishing political freedom and a new political regime. But as Hannah Arendt has explained in her work “On Revolution”, the social gradually overcame the political. The ideal of the political freedom gave its way to social justice. This transformation and displacement of the semantic content of revolution ultimately changed the horizon of the revolution. A political revolution turned in a social revolution. The goal which seemed attainable at the beginning was sent to a distant future. And the political revolution turned into a permanent revolution. The permanent revolution was there to remain until the attainment of social justice.

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