Adversarial critique is weaker than self-transformative engagement

Evidence

As to the question of whether my framework calls for the suspension of cri.. tique in regard to the patriarchal character of the mosque movement, my re.. sponse is that I urge no such stance. But what I do urge is an expansion of a normative understanding of critique, one that is quite prevalent among many progressives and feminists (among whom I have often included myself). Crit.. icism, in this view, is about successfu demolishing your opponent’s position and exposing the implausibility of her argument and its logical inconsisten.. cies. This, I would submit, is a very limited and weak understanding of the no.. tion of critique. Critique, I believe, is most powerful when it leaves open the possibility that we might also be remade in the process of engaging another’s worldview, that we might come to learn things that we did not already know before we undertook the engagement. This requires that we occasionally turn the critical gaze upon ourselves, to leave open the possibility that we may be remade through an encounter with the other. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 263

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Redefines critique itself as openness to being remade by the other — a paradigm-shifting ethical-epistemic stance against the dominant liberal model of critique as demolition.
• XREF: Ties to the vault’s secular-liberal critique cluster; challenges the widely held progressive assumption that criticism means defeating a position.