Who Was Right About the West? Contrasting Critiques From the Arab World

Amid increased clamoring and accusations about the West’s role on the global stage, particularly in the Near East, now more than ever, we must return to the fundamental question: Who was right about the West, its identity, and its legacy? Two voices emerge above the rest in this conversation: Edward Said and Charles Malik. These relatives by marriage could not have more oppositional outlooks on this question, and this September, we will examine the family feud that shaped the last several decades of foreign policy conversations.

Said and his seminal book Orientalism shaped an entire generation of academics and practitioners to believe that any relationship between the West and the East is fundamentally exploitative. The West, in this view, has no legacy worth retaining and exists in inalienable opposition to the Arab world. Said’s “post-colonial” thesis and its anti-Orientalist corollary have become the intellectual water American universities and institutions swim in, so much so that many students may parrot his thinking without knowing whom to credit.

But, another voice from the Arab world comes in sharp contrast. The Lebanese philosopher and diplomat Charles Malik believed the West was not beyond reproach, but offered a positive criticism: Westerners, especially leaders, should remain faithful to the deepest values in their rich and millennia-old cultural synthesis—the Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian cumulative tradition

Here we have two influential Arab intellectuals with vastly different critiques of the West. But, who was right?

To offer some insights into this pressing question, we have assembled a stellar group of scholars and thinkers who will unpack this question at our September conference: “Who Was Right About the West? Contrasting Critiques From the Arab World”

The conference will conclude with a set of specific recommendations for American policymakers to infuse a cultural-intellectual dimension into policymaking.

If you are unable to make the suggested donation, please email Liza@philosproject.org for information on sponsored tickets. We would love to have you!