Mohammad Mehdi Ardebili (born 1983), after graduating in computer engineering, changed his major to philosophy in master’s and completed his doctorate in western philosophy at Tabriz University. He then became faculty member at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies. During the 2010s, he taught courses regarding western philosophy in various universities and institutions in Tehran and wrote, translated, and edited numerous books and articles focusing on German idealism, especially Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. In 2012, he launched the analytical website Problematica.com with a group of friends. He was also the editor and secretary of the collection of “Modern Political notebooks” at Rouzbahan Publishing and “Classical Philosophy Texts” at Ney Publishing, and worked as the director of the philosophy department at Qoqnoos Publishing for more than six years.
Starting from 2018, he reduced his activities in the public sphere and soon after he announced his withdrawal from any public or academic activities in a letter addressed to the audience. A part of this letter states “The project that I have been involved in for the past 15 years (in the field of lecturing and teaching in academic and non-academic spaces of philosophy, in the field of writing and translating works in the tradition of Hegelian studies, as well as in the field of intellectual interventions) is over, as far as I am concerned. I don’t have any new ideas anymore, and whatever I say is repetition of the same things in different ways: and the most frightening way of life for a thinker is to fall into repetition and to be satisfied with the praise and admiration of eager audience and students.”In May 2022, Ardebili published the first edition of his upcoming project under the title “Principles of Fighting in the Age of Nihilism”.
He then officially resigned from his position as faculty member at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies and announced in a statement that he will no longer have any jobs, that all his undertakings will be distributed for free, and that he has chosen a life that is based on public donations.