THE PERSPECTIVE OF POSITIVISM IN OTTOMAN TURKEY'S SECOND CONSTITUTIONAL ERA: A STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF HUSEYIN CAHID AND AHMED SUAYB

Abstract

The positivism that started to spread in all European countries since the second half of the 19th century has influenced some of the Ottoman intellectuals, as in the rest of the world. Undoubtedly, there are many personal and political reasons for this situation, as well as many different reasons. However, the most important of them, in our opinion, is that some Ottoman intellectuals, who tried to follow the Western world and contact somehow with modern currents, attributed the reason for the backwardness of civilization in the last years of the Ottoman Empire to the absence of scientific mentality. Therefore, they thought that spreading the positivist philosophy was an appropriate way for the establishment of methods and approaches specific to positive sciences in their geography. In this article, we examine the influence of positivism on the Second Constitutional Era's Ottoman intellectuals in the example of Ottoman thinkers Huseyin Cahid Yalcin and Ahmed Suayb. It seems that these two positivist thinkers were seriously influenced by the positivist French philosopher Hippolyte Taine and shaped their intellectual mentalities around his thoughts. When we consider the intellectual activities of these two thinkers and their effects on the thought environment of later periods, it becomes obvious how important they are in terms of positivism in Ottoman Turkey's Second Constitutional Era. In this context, on the one hand we aimed to determine the extent of the influence of the Taine in the entry of positivism into the intellectual sphere in Turkey. On the other hand, by examining and comparing the positivist ideas that shape the mentalities and approaches of Huseyin Cahid and Ahmed Suayb, we looked for an answer to the question ``why positivism?{''}. Thus, we tried to trace the purpose behind this orientation. It should be noted here that in the previous studies on both Huseyin Cahid and Ahmed Suayb's positivism approaches, their positivist ideas were not specifically studied and the aim that directed their positivism perspectives was also neglected. As will be seen in this study, this situation has prevented the researchers from evaluating the ideas of both thinkers healthily. For this reason, we based the writings of Servet-i Funun to examine Huseyin Cahid's ideas, and Hayat ve Kitablar to examine the ideas of Ahmed Suayb. Huseyin Cahid criticized Ernest Renan for his attitudes towards poetry and art, rejected his views, and argued that an artist should know the scientific developments of his time. Therefore, science and art are not substitutes for each other. In this context, it will be seen that it is truly a remarkable point that the thinker has provided a successful compromise perspective on the relationship between science and art. This determination shows a more important result for our subject. This result is that Huseyin Cahid's main issue was to place a specific method of positive science in Turkey. Cahid has been heavily influenced by Taine and based on him especially in the fields of literature and aesthetics. In general, Cahid, who did not deal with the ideas of any positivist thinker other than Taine and the thinkers who supported him, did not directly refer to the thoughts of Auguste Comte. As for Ahmed Suayb, who dealt with positivism more broadly than Huseyin Cahid, it was seen that he had a typical positivist profile. However, both thinkers followed Taine and applied the method that followed in natural sciences to the field of morality. Determinism is the result of positivism and is at the heart of all scientific criticisms and developments in Taine's thought. This played a direct role in both Huseyin Cahid and Ahmed Suayb's adoption of determinism. As a result, we see that Taine had a great influence as much as Auguste Comte at least on the entry of positivism into Ottoman Turkey. Huseyin Cahid and Ahmed Suayb were so impressed by his thoughts that they conveyed his ideas exactly and adopted them like their own. On the other hand, we see that the main aim in preferring positivism is to compensate for the backwardness of the Ottoman Empire in terms of civilization, to gain a scientific mindset, and to place the approaches related to positive sciences. This result confirms the thesis mentioned above. It will be seen that the writings and ideas of both thinkers are the results of the search for a solution for the troubled period and the desire to bring the Ottoman Empire to the level of Western civilization.