Cromer characterized Orientals as inherently deficient in logic

Evidence

The European is a close reasoner; his statements of fact are devoid of ambiguity; he is a natural logician, albeit he may not have studied logic; he is by nature skeptical and requires proof before he can accept the truth of any proposition; his trained intelligence works like a piece of mechanism. The mind of the Oriental, on the other hand, like his picturesque streets, is eminently wanting in symmetry. His reasoning is of the most slipshod description. Although the ancient Arabs acquired in a somewhat higher degree the science of dialectics, their descendants are singularly deficient in the logical faculty. They are often incapable of drawing the most obvious conclusions from any simple premises of which they may admit the truth. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 337

Categorization

• CANDY: The ‘mind of the Oriental, like his picturesque streets, is eminently wanting in symmetry’ is a gloriously absurd and quotable line.
• XREF: Recalls Chapter 1’s Cromer in his pith helmet in Egypt; ties the reason-deficit trope to actual colonial administration. — connects to: Cromer framed European logic as mechanical and Oriental reason as slipshod; Orientalist doctrine attributes untruthfulness to a racialized Oriental mind; Academic Orientalist expertise legitimizes rather than corrects crude stereotypes (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Cromer framed European logic as mechanical and Oriental reason as slipshod #exemplifies (1.00)
• Orientalist doctrine attributes untruthfulness to a racialized Oriental mind #expands (0.85)
• Highbrow European thinkers characterized Orientals as lazy, irrational, and historyless. #expands (0.80) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 651
• Twentieth-century intellectuals attributed laziness, mysticism, and statelessness to Orientals en masse #expands (0.80)
• Orientalist typing subsumed individual traits under a presumed Oriental essence. #expands (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 584
• Orientalist writings assumed the Orient was inferior and childlike #expands (0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 206
• Academic Orientalist expertise legitimizes rather than corrects crude stereotypes #expands (0.70)
• Orientalism fixed the Orient as uniform, undeveloped, and incapable of self-definition #expands (0.70) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 188