Hilmi Ziya Ülken in the Modern Turkish Thought
Hilmi Ziya, within the time period of more than half a century -from the end of 1910s when he began his studies to his death in 1974- was occupied in doing various activities. He wrote and translated various books and hundreds of articles dealing with issues of a wide scope from literature to philosophy, from psychology to geography, logic and sociology; had an important role in organizing national and international congresses of sociology; presented papers at various national and international meetings, published journals, wrote articles for journals and newspapers, and founded philosophy and sociology associations. As far as the literature and fine arts are concerned, he not only wrote literary criticisms but also produced works of literature and interested in painting. With his extraordinary efforts he achieved to open the Sociology department at Istanbul University for the second time. He, in addition to giving lectures at the Faculty of Theology (Ankara University), also occupied administrative positions. There exists a rich literature, including articles, books, theses of MA and that of graduation dealing with Ülkens thought and studies. This indicates that we have a considerable amount of information about Hilmi Ziyas biography and studies. The aim of this article, however, is to reveal that the studies of Hilmi Ziya which were classified within the scopes of different disciplines have an accordance and consistency among themselves, and hence there exists continuity among his studies. Furthermore, it is also tried to be pointed out that in his studies, although he uses a highly technical and abstract language he discusses concrete issues and problems.
YÜCEL BULUT
