Abstract:

As an actor and phenomenon, the Turkish intellectual emerged in the Westernization process of the Ottoman Empire. The most important aim of the Westernization efforts in the Ottoman Empire is undoubtedly to save the state. The mission of saving the state has been the most important intellectual and political agenda of the Turkish intellectual, who is a product of the Westernization process. Because of this mission that he has set for himself, the Turkish intellectual has drawn an idealistic but intellectually weak profile. Instead of producing comprehensive programs for the basic problems of the state in the process of modernization and westernization, Turkish intellectuals sought more daily and short-term solutions. Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, who has become politically conscious in an intellectual and political environment shaped by this mission and ideal, is a concrete example of this trend with his intellectual and political line. However, Aydemir is an intellectual who became aware of the intellectual and programmatic weakness of the Turkish intellectual after the proclamation of the Republic and said that it should be objected to. In this article, the position of Şevket Süreyya Aydemir in this intellectual legacy that was transferred from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic and his objections to this legacy will be discussed.

Keywords: