A researcher’s worldview shapes his choice of subjects and methods

Evidence

The character of research, and of new attitudes to research, depends obviously on the intentions of the researchers. The Russian Academician Mitin, in a speech at a conference on scientific-atheist propaganda, said, ‘In demonstrating the antiscientific character of Islam, we must at the same time take into consideration the part it is playing, under present-day conditions, when, under its banner, there are proceeding a number of movements of great progressive importance’; he added that ‘in the Eastern countries there are still a great many people whose religious sentiments are fused with their nationalist sentiments’. … It is obvious that the intention of the scientific-atheist propagandist is a special one which will affect his studies of Islam very much. Any approach to the subject from a special point of view, Marxist, ‘humanist’, Christian or Islamic, will affect, not only the opinions and the conclusions, but the actual choice of subjects to study and of methods of study. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1717

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the well-worn claim that all scholarship is perspectival — echo of the earlier chapter point about how mediaeval Christendom’s argment still shapes every Western mind. — connects to: A scholar’s worldview shapes which subjects and methods they choose, not just their conclusions; Researcher roles as educator bleed into the interview process — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love:…, 627