The Impact of Bergsonian Ideas on the Development of Republican Conservatism in Turkey

Authors

  • Arshak Gevorgyan Yerevan State University

Keywords:

Turkish conservatism, conservative modernism, Kemalist positivism, Kemalism, Bergsonism, Henri Bergson

Abstract

The philosophy of major French thinker Henri Bergson had a massive influence on the development of modernist ideology in Europe by the turn of the last century. His approach of challenging positivist understanding of the notion of ‘the West’ was overwhelmingly popular among PostOttoman cultural elites starting by the end of the 1910s. It consequently inspired the development of an alternative conservative milieu in the early days of newly-established Kemalist Republic. Not being politically different from ruling ideology, Turkish republican conservatism stood for the liberal idea of modernity while rejecting European ideological rationalism. The paper touches upon the conservative modernist views of Turkish Bergsonians such as İsmayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu, Peyami Safa, Hilmi Ziya Ülken and Mustafa Şekip Tunç.

Author Biography

Arshak Gevorgyan, Yerevan State University

PhD Student of the Chair of Turkish Studies of YSU, Consul of the Republic of Armenia in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Address: 0025, Yerevan, Alex Manoogian 1, Email: a.gevorkian@mfa.am

Published

2019-07-12

How to Cite

Gevorgyan, Arshak. 2019. “The Impact of Bergsonian Ideas on the Development of Republican Conservatism in Turkey”. Bulletin of Yerevan University D: International Relations and Political Sciences 10 (2 (29):31-36. https://pub.ysu.am/index.php/bulletin-ysu-int-rel-pol/article/view/Vol.29_No.2_2019_pp.31-36.

Issue

Section

International Relations