Methodological self-consciousness frees scholars from inherited ideological frameworks

Evidence

On the other hand, scholars and critics who are trained in the traditional Orientalist disciplines are perfectly capable of freeing themselves from the old ideological straitjacket. Jacques Berque’s and Maxime Rodinson’s training ranks with the most rigorous available, but what invigorates their investigations even of traditional problems is their methodological self-consciousness. For if Orientalism has historically been too smug, too insulated, too positivistically confident in its ways and its premises, then one way of opening oneself to what one studies in or about the Orient is reflexively to submit one’s method to critical scrutiny. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 827

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines methodological self-consciousness as reflexive critique of one’s own method as the antidote to Orientalist smugness.
• XREF: Connects to the reflexive sociology of Bourdieu and to the reader’s broader critical-theory toolkit on positionality. — connects to: A scholar’s worldview shapes which subjects and methods they choose, not just their conclusions; Phenomenology’s epoché can neutralize political and ideological dogmas by prioritizing direct experience — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 148; Empirical sociology’s operational methodology is itself ideological — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 447 (+2 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 827