The Crisis of Reason and Subjectivity in the Hazara Community: A Phenomenological Exploration

Kokcha News Agency: The Hazara community in Afghanistan is grappling with a profound crisis of reason and subjectivity, where the interplay of religious tradition and modernity has created a stifling environment for philosophical and critical thought. This crisis is not just a product of political and social pressures but is deeply embedded in the ontological and epistemological structures of Hazara society.

The dominance of religious institutions, particularly Shiite jurisprudence, has marginalized critical reason, reducing philosophy to a threat against established beliefs. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theories of power and knowledge, it becomes evident that religious authorities control the production and distribution of religious knowledge, effectively suppressing any space for philosophical dialogue.

From a Hegelian perspective, reason, as the process of historical self-consciousness, has stagnated in Hazara society, leading to a state of “self-alienation.” The subject, trapped within closed epistemic circles, is unable to engage in critical self-reflection, resulting in a form of “limited consciousness” that reinforces dogmatic traditions and hinders philosophical self-awareness.

Jean-Paul Sartre and Edmund Husserl’s insights into subjectivity highlight the foundational role of self-consciousness in philosophical and critical action. However, in the Hazara community, this subjectivity remains underdeveloped, leading to what Marcel Mauss termed “unconscious ignorance”—a state where ignorance is not merely the absence of knowledge but a deeply ingrained structural condition.

The crisis is further exacerbated by the lack of indigenous philosophical production. Contemporary Hazara philosophers have failed to establish a dynamic interaction between philosophy and the socio-cultural context, resulting in a stagnant and repetitive intellectual landscape. As Hannah Arendt argued, philosophy must be a living, transformative force in collective life, but in Hazara society, it remains abstract, historical, and disconnected from lived experience.