Date of Submission
Spring 2016
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Political Studies
Project Advisor 1
Walter Mead
Abstract/Artist's Statement
Humans desire meaning in life, and achieve it by satiating their thymos. This is the part of the mind which desires pride, whereas the rational part of the soul desires reasoned thoughts, while the survival part of the soul desires food, water, and necessities. Furthermore, humans desire to show their lives have meaning in front of others, or seek recognition. They do this by risking their lives or livelihoods for the sake of satisfying their thymos.
The shah of Iran and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk tried to modernize their countries during the 19th Century. The shah was deposed in a revolution while Ataturk died as president and has left a lasting impression on Turkish life and government. The shah attempted to introduce reforms all at once, while Ataturk introduced them incrementally over time. The differences in their approaches determined how Iranians or Turks changed their identities, and their thymos, due to modernization, and how strongly they opposed it.
Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Evans, Ethan Jacob Hornk, "Political Modernization in Atatürk’s Turkey and The Shah’s Iran and the Struggle For Meaning" (2016). Senior Projects Spring 2016. 256.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2016/256
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Included in
Comparative Politics Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Models and Methods Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Political Theory Commons