A rationality geared to domination shapes how we construe the Other

Evidence

This rationality, of a specific type and structure, may not be disentangled from modern forms of life, the very forms that have led to the state of current crises. The crises have clearly been precipitated by a human agency (and no other), one that is self-professedly rational, but also one whose quest for knowledge is garnered, as Scheler put it aptly, for systematic control and domination. And it is this sovereign rationality that has dictated the way we construe ourselves as well as the Other in the world, including Islam and its history and cultures. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 464

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School / instrumental reason critique (Horkheimer, Adorno) and to Said’s orientalism thesis about knowing as a form of control. — connects to: Scientific neutrality is itself metaphysical and masks domination — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 43; Domination is perpetuated by thought’s own ossification, not by technology; Vagueness itself functions as an instrument of domination — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 114 (+14 more)