Humanistic critique dissolves mental constraint and enables reflective understanding

Evidence

My idea in Orientalism is to use humanistic critique to open up the fields of struggle, to introduce a longer sequence of thought and analysis to replace the short bursts of polemical, thought-stopping fury that so imprison us in labels and antagonistic debate whose goal is a belligerent collective identity rather than understanding and intellectual exchange. I have called what I try to do “humanism,” a word I continue to use stubbornly despite the scornful dismissal of the term by sophisticated postmodern critics. By humanism I mean first of all attempting to dissolve Blake’s mind-forg’d manacles so as to be able to use one’s mind historically and rationally for the purposes of reflective understanding and genuine disclosure. Moreover, humanism is sustained by a sense of community with other interpreters and other societies and periods: strictly speaking, therefore, there is no such thing as an isolated humanist. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 37

Categorization

• DEFINE: Said’s operative definition of humanism: historically- and rationally-using mind for understanding + community with other interpreters, and his refusal of postmodern dismissal.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 37
• XREF: connects to: Emancipatory social science requires methods that trigger self-reflection in subjects — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2448