All intellectual inquiry should serve ethical self-construction rather than domination.

Evidence

Once we recognize that our modern historiography is plotted in no less mythical and imaginary ways than any other (a thesis argued forcibly and convincingly by de Certeau, White, and a number of others), we will be on our way to articulating a healthier conception of the value of human and nonhuman life as embedded in a complex environment not only that sustains this life but also that instructs us in our “study” of the Other. The study of history, Orientalism, philosophy, science, and any other field of intellectual inquiry is essentially an exercise in an ethical self-construction, a technology for ethicizing the self. It is the only teleology that can be justified on ethical grounds. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 522

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A genuinely paradigm-level redefinition: all academic fields repositioned as technologies for ethicizing the self, the sole justifiable teleology. Resists one-sentence summary and demands sustained reflection.