The analysis of civilization conception by Nurettin Topçu

The aim of this study is to reveal what Nurettin Topçu understands from the concept of civilization and to reveal what the basic dynamics forming the concept of civilization are. Nurettin Topçu is a man of idea, spirit and action who went to France for education and taught in different lycees as a teacher of philosophy after coming back from France. He is a moralist philosopter who took the philosophy education in France. He met some intellectuals like Blondel, Bergson, Massignon while he was in Europe. He was the advance cuurier of philosophy of Action affected by Blondel's philosophy of Action and later on he systematized the Philosophy of Morality as the Morality of Rebellion. We began our study giving information about the life of Nurettin Topçu and tried to give the basic thought of the effective authors and people who formed our World of Intellectuality. At the beginning of the 20th. Century, the struggle of Nurettin Topçu to understand the chaotic periods of Islamic World and the structure of Islamic World has a great importance. We tried to reavel of his contribution to the Turkish Educational Philosophy by the course books, the doctarate thesis and the periodical of Action. Our study is formed in two parts. We took up the civilization understanding of Topçu in two ways: The theoric elements which establish the civilization and the practical elements which are the products of civilization. In the theoric elements of civilization, the differences to understand the concept of civilization have been revealed. We tried to reveal the Action philosophy of Topçu, his understanding of education which is the main stone of culture and civilization, his philosophy of morality as a moralist philosopher, and his understanding of Anatolianism which he regarded as the Turkish- Islamic synthesis, and finally his nationalism. In the second part of our study, we tried to reveal Topçu's point of view on the youth and the basic problems of the youth which are the products of his understanding of civilization, the affects of religion in the society, the understanding of the art developing paralel to the religion, the place of literature in culture and civilization, the progression of Turkish- Islamic Civilization and ıts place against the West; and the crisis which Islamic Civilization had as the outlet of civilization. Key Words: Civilization, Culture, Education, Religion, Youth, Language, Morals, Art.