Quarterly Journal of Political
Research in Islamic World

Philosophical thought, especially in its political form, began with the Al_Farabi more than thousand years ago in the Islamic world but affirmatively, this kind of thought in the world of politics and political action has less results. The question is “what is the role of political philosophy in the evolutions of the present Islamic world?” Evaluating the political-philosophical texts in the Islamic world revealed that there are two main definitions for individual:  “philosophical” individual and “civil” individual. While in this approach the philosophical individual is the main focus but the civil individual has been known as the main origin of democratic movement. 

The pivotal role of philosophical individual in philosophical thought has caused that concepts which could have produce democratic movement, cannot be developed and even this method of thinking, negatively, was a barrier for it. Emphasizing on civil individual rather than philosophical individual has brought a sort of philosophical seclusion, resulted that the philosopher leaves cities for achieving happiness in isolation.

Therefore, it can concluded that , philosophical thought in the Islamic world lessens the concept of individual to philosophical individual which, due to having the exclusive characteristic in understanding and arguing, has always been an essential barrier for cooperative activities (in recent decades the democratic behavior). However in order to achieve cooperative activities and going through a democratic way, there is need to challenge this kind of philosophical thought.