Nationalism, Science and Religion: Folk Religion in National Society Imagination of Turkish Nationalism M

Abstract

AbstractSolidarity, established strongly between power and science, showed once again in the 19th and20th centuries to create national states and societies. Nationalist powers to build their own nationalsocieties as a homogeneous totality benefited from science excessively. This study, which examinesin the context of services provided by science in the process of building a national Turkish society,discusses how Turkish nationalist elites use the scientific paradigms to make the folk religionnonfunctional. The study, which attempts to show that this is made possible by the manipulation,over-interpretation and ignoring the most vital points of scientific theories by French SociologistEmile Durkheim, focuses on the works of two nationalist thinkers as Ziya Gokalp and MehmetFuad Koprulu intensively influenced by Durkheim. This study aims to reveal a series of scientificmanipulations towards religion and religious culture in the creation of a nationalist society, byanalyzing the works of these nationalist intellectuals with the method of context analysis. In thefirst part of the study plan, the relationship of power with science will be discussed and the role ofintellectuals in this process will be highlighted. In the following section, it will discuss how ideas ofnationalist thinkers at issue intertwine with science by analyzing the relation between science andpower in Turkish political life. In the third and last part, it will be shown how the manipulation andover-interpretation in the process of interpretation of Durkheim’s theoretical explanations make folkreligion and religious folk culture nonfunctional.Keywords: Folk Religion, Nationalism, Scientific Manipulation, Ziya Gokalp, Mehmet FuadKoprulu.