the unbearable lightness of empty time: the responses of iranian intellectuals to the time experiences of modernity

By an approach to the sociology of time, this article seeks to examine the consequences of transformations in the space time order of society ensuing rapid modernization processes for iranian intellectuals in the decades succeeding the 1979 islamic revolution. first, it explores how certain western thinkers and philosophers confronted the spread of “empty time,” and then turned to the works of three influential iranian intellectuals of that period dariush shayegan, ali shari‘ati, and jalal al e ahmad, aiming to compare their positions. it also asks: how did they, during that period, engage with the category of modern time? how did it touch their assessment and understanding of the west? and can a kind of relationship be discerned between their time based assessments and their demand for political changes?this paper takes on a document based approach, applying the theoretical sampling to analyse the primary texts of three intellectuals under study the findings suggest that the dominance of modern empty time constituted these intellectuals’ discontent with the west, and that their concerns were closely tied to their dissatisfaction with modernity and autocratic modernization processes. their dissatisfaction, in turn, promoted their estrangement from the shah’s regime and its western oriented social reform projects and their receptivity to a fundamental transformation of society grounded in religion and tradition as well.it concludes that while western philosophers grappled with the hollowing out of time in modernity, seeking to reclaim meaningful moments in diogenic temporalities or expressive dimensions of modern life. iranian intellectuals also attempted to offset and fill the unbearable lightness of modern time with the weight of tradition. despite the post revolutionary slowdown of processes of modernization and a return to tradition, additionally, the problem of the emptiness of modern time has yet remained an unavoidable and open ended challenge for iranian thinkers and intellectuals.