Intellectuals, Politics, & Moral Action During Crises: Theorizing Dilemmas

• In Event: 20454 - Moral Dilemmas, Cultural Production, and Policy Frames in Middle Eastern Societies

Abstract

Volatile political times rarely leave intellectuals free of contradictions. This led many sociologists of intellectuals to dismiss idealist explanations and instead emphasize interests as the true factor motivating intellectuals’ actions. I argue that moral dilemmas are an important yet often neglected reason for intellectuals’ inconsistency. This is because intellectuals resolve moral dilemmas through (1) their trust networks’ skewed information and (2) consequentialist ethics concerned with protecting their threatened moral community. I theorize dilemmas by providing a tripartite typology (competing-interests, interest-value, and moral/competing-values dilemmas) and an alternative pragmatist explanation: we face dilemmas when we encounter situations that activate different habits, each of which pushes us to act differently. This argument is empirically demonstrated through an in-depth study of the divergent politics of an influential Egyptian intellectual, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, during the Arab Spring. Al-Qaradawi was accused of inconsistency after passionately supporting anti-authoritarian revolutions in Egypt, Libya, and Syria but not in Bahrain and Sudan. I provide evidence of al-Qaradawi’s moral dilemma between revolutionary and consequentialist ethics in Bahrain and Sudan, attributing inconsistency to the influence of his trust networks (who opposed the uprisings in those cases) and consequentialist ethics concerned with protecting his “comprehensive Islam” groups.

Author

• Muhammad Amasha, Yale University