Oblivion of Origins: On Hegemonic Universals and Hybrid Civilizations (original) (raw)
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Towards the dignity of difference?: neither 'end of history' nor 'clash of civilizations
2012
structure of the volume; introducing briefly the main arguments of the twenty-six chapters organized in four major parts of this volume. Two faces of western-centrism Western-centrism equates modernity, progress, and civilization with the superior west and it associates tradition, backwardness, and barbarism with the exotic and inferior Rest/East. it is precisely in this context that the old form of colonialism was revived in a new ideological form-that is, one of development and modernization in the post-colonial era. The former colonies would be retained within the West's orbit by ensuring that they adopt western values, goals, and institutions. The only 'legitimate' model advanced was a non-communist model of development, a Western liberal-capitalist model. The Western path to development and democracy, it was argued, would save the Third World (developing/underdeveloped countries) from the dangers of the Second World (Communist bloc headed by the Soviet Union) and, equally important, emancipate these countries from their traditional values that stood as impediments to the spread of both liberalism and capitalism. This western-centric approach of developmentalism/modernization was built on three central assumptions. First, the modern West was, by definition, developed (and therefore was seen as a model to be emulated), whereas the Rest was underdeveloped. Second, the causes of underdevelopment were often portrayed as rooted in the traditional cultures and institutions of the Rest. And third, the Rest had to abandon its traditions and adopt western practices; otherwise the west and the Rest would remain locked in political and intellectual conflict. during the past two decades, fukuyama's universalism and huntington's particularism renewed the assumptions of this earlier form of Western-centrism. Reflecting on the collapse of Soviet-style communism, Francis Fukuyama proclaimed in his essay 'The end of history?' 1 and later in his book The End of History and the Last Man 2 that western liberal capitalism had defeated its two major opponents-fascism and communism. According to Fukuyama, the collapse of the soviet Union signaled nothing less than 'the end of history as such: that is the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.' 3 central to fukuyama's thesis is the idea that western liberal democracy had proved itself to be the best and, indeed, the only viable option for the governance of the many and diverse countries of the contemporary world. The End of History thus revived the old developmentalist claim that western liberal capitalism is a universal paradigm, one that could/should be embraced by countries in both the north and 1 francis fukuyama, 'The end of history?'
Civilization. Global Histories of a Political Idea
Civilization Global Histories of a Political Idea, 2022
Civilizations, or rather narratives about civilizations, matter, not only as research subjects in textbooks, literary and scientific essays, but also in politics. This seems to be the case in "civilizational states" such as China, Russia, Turkey and Syria. Also in Western countries, in recent decades, the notion of civilization has often been used in public discourse: political parties and leaders have referred in particular to the need to protect Western civilization, calling in this regard for policies to restrict immigration from Muslim countries. In 2022 the narrative on civilization was used to legitimize the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The studies in this collected volume reconstruct how civilizational paradigms and narratives have been used to explain political relations, to define the global order, to justify attempts to gain hegemony over particular geopolitical areas, and to make predictions on global developments in specific times of crisis. In particular, this book analyzes the concepts of civilization as they have been used in the intellectual and political discourse in periods particularly critical for global relations and for the consolidation or contestation of the West’s dominant role in international, national politics and academic discourse.
Fourth Turning Clash of Inter-Civilization Cultures Thesis
2019
Why did classical liberalism fail to achieve the results its original proponents envisioned? Given the popularity of social liberalism modern liberalism and progressive causes and ideologies, as derivatives and permutations of classical liberalism, one might argue it has not failed in the first place, rather, perhaps it has not yet been fully realized and implemented. But the fact is classical liberalism has failed, as can be conclusively proven, it has failed because it ignored immutable metaphysical laws, the historic reality and an approach to human nature based upon realism. At the end of the road of classical liberalism the West arrived at social liberalism and progressive liberalism which beckon its adherents to seek greater authoritarianism to compel compliance and ultimately reduce individual liberty and increase governmental power.
Modernity, Civilization and the Return to History [abstract + other scholars' comments]
A truly innovative and original work, comprehensive, balanced, and relevant to any investigation into and understanding of modernity. The author does a remarkable job of drawing from Western and Islamicate philosophy in a comprehensive and rigorous manner that exposes the reader to an intense, descriptive analysis of the problems encountered in interpreting history. His methodology is cohesive, and the evidence adds to the high quality of his argument...[O]ne of the most scholastic and ambitious undertakings I have ever encountered, extremely well-written...I stand in admiration of this work. The students of history, philosophy, theology, and religious studies would have a deep interest in this book. Geran F. Dodson University of North Georgia This fascinating book adopts a radically interdisciplinary approach in order to sort out modernity by questioning that which we call philosophy...delighted by the wealth of insights and connections unraveled by the author...genius. Mohammad Azadpur Professor of Philosophy San Francisco State University Anthony Shaker has written an extrordinary rich book exploring modernity, tradition and civilization. Drawing on the learned tradition of Islamdom as well as the work of Qunavi, but also many others, Shaker identifies the pitfalls of thinking about tradition and modernity in isomorphic terms. There is more to Islam than merely text. He draws our attention to personhood, history and the project of civility and shows a hopeful path forward. This is compulsory reading for anyone who agonizes about the world we are living in and seeks inspiration from the past that can be usefully used in the present. Ebrahim Moosa Professor of Islamic Studies Keough School of Global Affairs University of Notre Dame Digging deep into the roots of our modern ideas of civilization..., Shaker says ‘what we call modernity cannot be fathomed without making [the] historical connection’ between our times and ‘the spirit of scientific investigation associated with a self-conscious Islamicate civilization...’ This is not a book for casual reading. [But] despite some of the material being beyond my own scholarship, it is not at all difficult to see that the approach of the book is unique, that the level of inquiry and argument is clear, concise, and well-supported by source material. It’s certainly clear enough for me that I was able to follow the argument...I recommend it highly...This truly is a monumental work, and so far as I know there is no comparable work. I really do think this is a work of genius. Paul Richard Harris, Editor Axis of Logic Abstract The modern concept and study of civilization have their roots, not in western Europe, but in the long tradition of scientific and philosophic inquiry that began in a self-conscious Islamicate civilization. They emerged—as Heidegger would say—within a “region of being” proper to systematic science. Western European thought has introduced new elements that have completely altered how collective and personal identities are conceived and experienced. In this age of “globalization,” expressions of identity (individual, social and cultural) survive precariously outside their former boundaries, and humanity faces numerous challenges—environmental degradation, policy inertia, interstate bellicosity, cultural rivalries. Yet, the world has been globalized for at least a millennium, a fact partially obscured by the threadbare but widespread belief that modernity is a product of something called the West. One is thus justified in asking, as many people do today, if humanity has not lost its initiative. This is not a historical, a sociological or an empirical question, but fundamentally a philosophical one. The modern concepts of identity and personhood have come under heavy scrutiny because there can be no human initiative without the human agency that flows from them. Given their present inscrutability, and at the same time profound importance to us, Dr. Shaker brings to bear a wealth of original sources from both German thought and Ḥikmah (Islamicate philosophy), the latter based on material previously unavailable to scholars. He shows why posing the age-old question of identity anew in the light of these two traditions, whose special place in history is assured, can help clear the confusion surrounding modernity and civilization—i.e., the way we, the acting subject, live and deliberate on the present and the past. Proximity to Scholasticism, and therefore Islamicate philosophy, lends German thought up to Heidegger a unique ability to dialogue with Ḥikmah, as scholars since Max Horten and Henry Corbin (the first French translator of Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit) have been discovering. Two fecund elements common to Heidegger, Qūnawī and Mullā Ṣadrā are of special importance: logos (utterance and speech) as the structural embodiment of the primary meaning of a thing, and the unity-in-difference that Ṣadrā finally formulated as the substantial movement of existentiation. Heidegger, who occupies a good portion of this study, questioned modern ontology at a time of social collapse and deep spiritual crisis not unlike ours. Yet, that period also saw the greatest breakthroughs in modern physics and social science. With the waning of the old naïvetés of biologism, psychologism and social evolutionism, our very conception of time and space as measurable determinations was overturned. Dr. Shaker thus concludes with a few chapters on the theme of identity renewal in Western literature and Muslim “reformism.” The roots of the latter point to a civilizational point of convergence between the Eurocentric worldview, which provides the secular aesthetics roots of modernism, and an intellectual current originating in Ibn Taymiyyah’s epistemological reductionism. Both expressed the longing for pristine origin in a historical “golden age,” an obvious deformation of the commanding, creative oneness of being that has guided thought for millennia.
Ilahiyat Studies, 2012
First paragraph: Since the publication of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations in 1993, the idea of a “clash regime” or “clash mentality” – that is, the idea that civilizations (which Huntington understands as defined and unproblematically fixed) are engaged in inevitable ideological clashes – has been either taken seriously in circles of foreign policy or, alternately, critiqued vehemently. Fully appreciating his predecessors Foucault and Edward Said’s idea that discourse precedes his-tory, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam’s (School of Oriental and African Stu-dies, University of London) book A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and Them Beyond Orientalism steps back from the debate itself to offer a metahistorical critique of the clash regime and how it has come to have such a central place in twentieth-century discour-se. Adib-Moghaddam notes how the idea of the clash regime is so central to our thinking that even some critics of Huntington’s theory find themselves wrapped up in its binary oppositions and reinforcing its very foundations. In other words, for some readers, Huntington is taken as wrong not because he postulates the existence of distinct “civilizations,” but because he claims that they are “clashing.” It is precisely the history of these postulated divisions between civilizations – either viewed as Manichean or not – that Adib-Moghaddam aims to examine. His method is to proceed more or less chronologically, but also through multiple disciplines where the clash regime has found its most fertile ground, namely history, religion, and philosophy. In this sense, his study takes us far beyond a mere description of the history of the clash regime to an examination of the ideological positions that have allowed its production in the first place.
The Clash of Civilizations Thesis: A Critical Appraisal
2020
The tension between theory and the ‘real world’ can produce a tendency to see the development of theory as a response to events in the world, with seemingly new phenomena requiring fresh theories – the most recent phenomena involving the end of the Cold War, the demise of bipolarity, and questions about the status of American hegemony. The academic discipline of International Relations (IR) awaited a new paradigm which could provide an outlook to delineate the picture of the newly emerging world politics after the end of the Cold War. Interestingly, various contending paradigms cropped up, most of these originating in the West – particularly in the US. The linkage is in fact significant as it demonstrates the knowledge-power relationship in international relations. If the US could disguise its empire building project and legitimise its aggressive foreign policy behaviour as a necessary defensive posture to contain the threat of communism and the USSR during the Cold War, it could no...
A truly innovative and original work, comprehensive, balanced, and relevant to any investigation into and understanding of modernity. The author does a remarkable job of drawing from Western and Islamicate philosophy in a comprehensive and rigorous manner that exposes the reader to an intense, descriptive analysis of the problems encountered in interpreting history. His methodology is cohesive, and the evidence adds to the high quality of his argument...[O]ne of the most scholastic and ambitious undertakings I have ever encountered, extremely well-written...I stand in admiration of this work. The students of history, philosophy, theology, and religious studies would have a deep interest in this book. Geran F. Dodson University of North Georgia This fascinating book adopts a radically interdisciplinary approach in order to sort out modernity by questioning that which we call philosophy...delighted by the wealth of insights and connections unraveled by the author...genius. Mohammad Azadpur Professor of Philosophy San Francisco State University Anthony Shaker has written an extrordinary rich book exploring modernity, tradition and civilization. Drawing on the learned tradition of Islamdom as well as the work of Qunavi, but also many others, Shaker identifies the pitfalls of thinking about tradition and modernity in isomorphic terms. There is more to Islam than merely text. He draws our attention to personhood, history and the project of civility and shows a hopeful path forward. This is compulsory reading for anyone who agonizes about the world we are living in and seeks inspiration from the past that can be usefully used in the present. Ebrahim Moosa Professor of Islamic Studies Keough School of Global Affairs University of Notre Dame Digging deep into the roots of our modern ideas of civilization..., Shaker says ‘what we call modernity cannot be fathomed without making [the] historical connection’ between our times and ‘the spirit of scientific investigation associated with a self-conscious Islamicate civilization...’ This is not a book for casual reading. [But] despite some of the material being beyond my own scholarship, it is not at all difficult to see that the approach of the book is unique, that the level of inquiry and argument is clear, concise, and well-supported by source material. It’s certainly clear enough for me that I was able to follow the argument...I recommend it highly...This truly is a monumental work, and so far as I know there is no comparable work. I really do think this is a work of genius. Paul Richard Harris, Editor Axis of Logic Abstract The modern concept and study of civilization have their roots, not in western Europe, but in the long tradition of scientific and philosophic inquiry that began in a self-conscious Islamicate civilization. They emerged—as Heidegger would say—within a “region of being” proper to systematic science. Western European thought has introduced new elements that have completely altered how collective and personal identities are conceived and experienced. In this age of “globalization,” expressions of identity (individual, social and cultural) survive precariously outside their former boundaries, and humanity faces numerous challenges—environmental degradation, policy inertia, interstate bellicosity, cultural rivalries. Yet, the world has been globalized for at least a millennium, a fact partially obscured by the threadbare but widespread belief that modernity is a product of something called the West. One is thus justified in asking, as many people do today, if humanity has not lost its initiative. This is not a historical, a sociological or an empirical question, but fundamentally a philosophical one. The modern concepts of identity and personhood have come under heavy scrutiny because there can be no human initiative without the human agency that flows from them. Given their present inscrutability, and at the same time profound importance to us, Dr. Shaker brings to bear a wealth of original sources from both German thought and Ḥikmah (Islamicate philosophy), the latter based on material previously unavailable to scholars. He shows why posing the age-old question of identity anew in the light of these two traditions, whose special place in history is assured, can help clear the confusion surrounding modernity and civilization—i.e., the way we, the acting subject, live and deliberate on the present and the past. Proximity to Scholasticism, and therefore Islamicate philosophy, lends German thought up to Heidegger a unique ability to dialogue with Ḥikmah, as scholars since Max Horten and Henry Corbin (the first French translator of Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit) have been discovering. Two fecund elements common to Heidegger, Qūnawī and Mullā Ṣadrā are of special importance: logos (utterance and speech) as the structural embodiment of the primary meaning of a thing, and the unity-in-difference that Ṣadrā finally formulated as the substantial movement of existentiation. Heidegger, who occupies a good portion of this study, questioned modern ontology at a time of social collapse and deep spiritual crisis not unlike ours. Yet, that period also saw the greatest breakthroughs in modern physics and social science. With the waning of the old naïvetés of biologism, psychologism and social evolutionism, our very conception of time and space as measurable determinations was overturned. Dr. Shaker thus concludes with a few chapters on the theme of identity renewal in Western literature and Muslim “reformism.” The roots of the latter point to a civilizational point of convergence between the Eurocentric worldview, which provides the secular aesthetics roots of modernism, and an intellectual current originating in Ibn Taymiyyah’s epistemological reductionism. Both expressed the longing for pristine origin in a historical “golden age,” an obvious deformation of the commanding, creative oneness of being that has guided thought for millennia.