The Idea
Arkoun sees modernity as having changed the very criterion for being human: religious affiliation is no longer the basis for defining one’s public status, but rather citizenship and equal rights. In this sense, civil value comes before doctrinal distinction in the public sphere. Faith has its place in the private sphere, not the public one, and it must not be turned into a tool for ranking people’s rights.
Concise Formulation
Modernity: shifted the criterion of the human being to citizenship and equal rights
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This claim serves the book’s argument because it links the critique of fundamentalism to a political and ethical transformation larger than a mere change in ideas. The book does not present modernity as a cultural ornament, but as a framework that redefines the relationship between the individual, the community, and the state. From here, the criterion of citizenship becomes part of Arkoun’s struggle against the monopolization of truth and religious privilege in the public sphere.
Why It Matters
This idea is important because it clarifies the practical dimension of Arkoun’s critique of fundamentalist thought. For him, the issue is not merely revising religious discourse, but re-establishing the relationship between the human being and rights. Through this claim, we understand that Arkoun’s wager on modernity is a wager on public equality, not on replacing one creed with another.
Brief Evidence
This passage holds that modernity changed the criterion for being human, so that religious affiliation is no longer the basis for defining one’s public status, but rather citizenship and equal rights. In this way, civil value comes before doctrinal distinction in the public sphere. Faith has its place in the private sphere, not the public one, and it must not be turned into a tool for ranking people’s rights.
Reading Questions
- Why is the shift of the criterion of the human being to citizenship considered a decisive transformation in political thought?
- How does Arkoun distinguish between the private place of faith and the criterion of public rights?
Degree of Documentation
High: the claim appears in a clear location in the book’s material.