Colin Turner
Dr.
Articles
2017 Symposium Papers
WHAT IS NURSİ’S POSITIVE ACTION?
This paper represents an exploration of thoughts and ideas rather than anything particularly academic. One thing that I should clarify from the outset is that Nursi’s positive action should not be conflated with this late 20th century social orthodoxy known as ‘positive thinking’. Positive action – musbet hareket – is not a method. It is not a strategy that is employed at a particular time as a reactive response to a particular event or situation. My argument is that for Nursi, positivity underpins ontology. Positivity underpins his epistemology, his value system and the behaviours and actions that he advocates.