Taha Abdurrahman


Taha Abderrahmane, or Taha Abdurrahman is a Moroccan philosopher, and one of the leading philosophers and thinkers in the Arab-Islamic world. His work centers on logic, philosophy of language and philosophy of morality. He believes in multiple modernities and seeks to establish an ethical and humanitarian modernity based on the values and principles of Islam and the Arab tradition.

Early life and education

He was born in 1944 and raised in El Jadida there he went to basic school, after that he moved to Casablanca where he continued his high school, and then he joined the Mohammed V University where he obtained his licentiate in philosophy. He completed his studies at the university of Sorbonne where he received his second licentiate and obtained his doctoral third level in the year of 1972 on the subject: "Language and philosophy: a study of the linguistic structures of ontology", and in 1985 he earned his Ph.D in the philosophy on the subject "study of argumentation and its methods".
In addition to Arabic, French and English, he also speaks German, Latin and Ancient greek - in order to read philosophy authors in their original language.

Career in academia

Abdurrahman served as a Professor of Philosophy of language and logic at Mohammed V University from 1970 until his retirement in 2005. He is a member of the 'International Society for the Study of Argumentation' which he represents in Morocco, representative of 'Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Philosophie / Society of Intercultural Philosophy', and director of 'Wisdom Circle for Thinkers and Researchers'.
He was awarded the Prize of Morocco twice, and in 2006 the ISESCO Prize in Islamic thought and philosophy.

Characteristics of his method

His philosophical practice is characterized by a combination of "logical analysis" and "linguistic derivation" proceeding a mystical experience, in a framework to provide the concepts related to the Islamic heritage and based on the most important achievements of modern Western thought on the level of "theories of speech" and "argumentative logic" and " philosophy of ethics, which makes his philosophizing predominantly appearing in a "moral" and "deliberative" style.

His Most Important Works