The Iranian Spirit: Existential Logic and Existential Threat

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Behzad Attarzadeh

Independent Scholar

10.22067/ips.2026.98058.1023

Abstract

This study conducts a genealogical and ontological inquiry into the contemporary question of Iranian identity, positing that the ratio essendi (existential logic) of the Iranian nation is defined by a historical unity-in-plurality. Contrary to the modern sociological-ideological reduction of Iran to a "multi-ethnic" mosaic,  this manuscript argues for the "Idea of Iran" as a transcendental spirit that sublates linguistic, religious, and regional particularities into a unified civilizational whole. The inquiry traces the genealogy of "ethno-nationalism"—identified here as the primary existential threat to Iranian unity—demonstrating its roots in the imported terminologies of Soviet Marxism-Leninism (specifically the Stalinist taxonomy of "peoples" and "nationalities") and its subsequent metamorphosis into the post-Cold War discourse of "identity politics" and "multiculturalism."
By analyzing historical developments, including the Soviet-instigated Azerbaijan crisis of the 1940s and the distinct mechanisms of Pan-Turkist and Pan-Kurdist currents, the text reveals how these ideologies function as a "Trojan horse." They impose standardized, monolithic "ethnic" categories upon Iran's complex, "compound social pluralities," effectively erasing the organic nuances of local identity to construct artificial political antagonisms. The study concludes that the intellectual and political defense of Iran requires rejecting these superstructural, foreign-derived categorizations in favor of a reassertion of the National Universal, in which the rights of the individual citizen are prioritized over the fabricated claims of the ethno-tribal entity.

Keywords

Iranian National Identity

Existential Logic

Ratio Essendi

Ethno-Nationalism

Identity Politics

Unity In Plurality

Civilizational Continuity

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