SV: SV: [INDOLOGY @ ] The importance of WESTOLOGY in inter-civilization dialog

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rajiv.malhotra [sMTP:rajiv.malhotra] skrev 25. april 2001

18:13:

> INDOLOGY, Lars Martin Fosse <lmfosse@o...> wrote:

> > The West is constantly studying itself and has been doing so for a

> long

> > time. I believe this is called sociology.

>

> Yes, but this is not the same thing as a view from the other. I am

> referring to a project of 'Otherizing' the west.

 

As far as I can see, everybody is "otherizing" everybody else all the time.

I have heard a lot of complaints about Western scholarship etc., but I have

not seen any appetizing alternatives yet. My impression is that intelligent

critique from the "Orient" (if you will pardon the expression) is

appreciated and taken seriously (such as the Orientalism debate). It is the

nonsense that gets rejected.

 

In sociology, the

> western scholars cannot help superimpose their own myths

> unconsciously, for instance, as the categories, hermeneutics, and

> even in the choice of topics that are deemed interesting or

> appropriate.

 

The same would apply everywhere. Please offer serious alternatives. Which

topics should be studied, which hermeneutics should be used?

 

In fact, the west's pursuit of Orientalism is

> inseparable from its construction of self-image, and many scholars

> have explained how the other was required to construct this self

> image. Having done that, the Other became the object of appropriation.

 

The West's pursuit of Orientalism was a far more complex thing than you

suggest. In the 19th century it played a part in our construction of self.

All this has been well documentet. To suggest that this is going on today,

is nonsense. Orientalism is today simply a normal part of the general

academic venture to understand man and society. That does not mean that it

is beyond criticism, or that there are no prejudices involved. But the West

does not need the East to define itself.

 

> The analysis of western scholars through their lives, especially the

> U-Turn from the East, is an interesting study of the inter-

> relationship between the scholar's psychology and the scholarship at

> various phases in their lives.

 

What do you mean by the U-turn from the East?

 

Lars Martin

 

 

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse

Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,

0674 Oslo

Norway

Phone: +47 22 32 12 19

Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45

Fax 1: +47 22 32 12 19

Fax 2: +47 85 02 12 50 (InFax)

Email: lmfosse