Synopses & Reviews
Philosophy claims to be the search for knowledge, unbound by any fetters. Yet even a cursory analysis of how it is conceived when it exists outside the European tradition reveals a troubling bias. While European philosophy, for example is simply known as philosophy,” African philosophy is all too often dubbed ethnophilosophy.” The Western philosophical tradition simply hasnt acknowledged the vast amount of innovative thought that has flourished outside the European philosophical pedigreeand that has led to awkward, and damaging, failures to properly reckon with the ideas of people like Japans Kojin Karatani, Cubas Roberto Fernandez Retamar, or even Americas Cornel West.
In Can Non-Europeans Think?, Hamid Dabashi brings together a unique group of historical and theoretical reflections on current affairs and the role of philosophy to argue that, in order to grapple with the problems of humanity today, we must eliminate the ethnographic gaze that infects philosophy and casts Arab and other non-Western thinkers as subordinates.
Review
“For decades, Hamid Dabashi has drawn from the histories of the non-West to argue for ways of thinking deemed illegitimate by the parochial but powerful guardians of intellectual life in the West. In
Can Non-Europeans Think? he takes his subtle but vigorous polemic to another level. Anyone disheartened by the present impasse of historicism, or interested in alternatives to dysfunctional and discredited ideologies of progress, should read it.”
Review
“These essays are trenchant, witty, provocative, mischievous, and on target. Now assembled in a volume and read together, they become organically interconnected moments of one broad, powerful, and compelling meditation on what it means to think (in) our global postcolonial world.”
Review
“Dabashi's book is both a panoramic critique of, and a revolt against, dominant forms of knowledge. It is characteristically lucid and accessible. A worthwhile read.”
Review
“Drawing from his unrivalled inside knowledge of various intellectual traditions, Hamid Dabashi has written, with acuity, passion and humour, a critical synthesis of Western thought from the vantage point of the 'dark races'' distinctive epistemologies and historical references.”
Review
“Hamid Dabashi's Can Non-Europeans Think? collects his important provocations on issues ranging from post-colonialism to democracy. These are pieces to wrestle with, to think about, to discuss and debate. Reading Dabashi is like going for an extended coffee with a very smart friend.”
Review
“Can Non-Europeans Think? The simple answer is yes. The more complicated answer is also yes, but requires that the reader dismantles the very notion of 'West' and 'European'. This is a fabulous read.”
Review
“Dabashi eloquently articulates the intellectual journey of a whole generation of postcolonial thinkers: its findings must be heard.”
Review
“A much needed corrective to the complacent view that multicultural diversity reigns in US and European Universities. Hamid Dabashi's new work is a tour de force.”
Review
“With elegant irony,
Can Non-Europeans Think? reorients our reading of the world. It is a passionate rejoinder to those who are unable to see beyond European framings and rootings.”
Synopsis
'Homi Bhabha is one of that small group occupying the front ranks of cultural theoretical thought. Any serious discussion of post-colonial/postmodern scholarship is inconceivable without referencing Mr. Bhabha.' -- Toni Morrison
Rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity -- one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. In The Location of Culture, he uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.
Synopsis
In rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity. Bhabha uses such concepts as mimicry to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent.
Synopsis
What happens with thinkers who operate outside the European philosophical 'pedigree'? Why is European Philosophy 'Philosophy', but African philosophy 'ethnophilosophy'? In Japan, Kojin Karatani, in Cuba, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, or even in the United States people like Cornel West, whose thinking is not entirely in the European continental tradition - what about them? Where do they fit in? Can they think - is what they do also thinking, philosophical, pertinent, perhaps, or is that also suitable for ethnographic examinations?
In this challenging and thought provoking book Dabashi pulls together a unique constellation of historical and theoretical reflections on current affairs to argue that we need to breakdown the ethnographic gaze that is evident with intellectual thinking in the Arab world.
About the Author
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword: Yes, We Can by Walter Mignolo
Introduction: Can Europeans Read?
1 Can Non-Europeans Think?
2 The Moment of Myth Edward Said, 1935-2003
3 The Middle East is Changed Forever
4 The War between the Civilized Man and the Savage
5 Postcolonial Defiance or Still the Other
Conclusion: The Continued Regime of Knowledge
Index