Ending the Ideology of "Western" Exceptionalism

The late Richard Walzer (author of Greek Into Arabic) has rapidly become my favorite Orientalist, alongside Walter Burkert, my favorite Classicist (tied in that department with the late, great N. O. Brown). Each, in his own way, chose to eschew the ideology of "Western" exceptionalism--and, thereby, the dogmas which underwrite and justify imperial expansionism. Both subscribe to Donne's dictum that no man is an island and, if no man, then no collectivity of men and women. No culture, no society, no civilization is an island, entire unto itself.

As Burkert writes in his book Babylon Memphis Persepolis: "Civilization...develops through contact with foreigners and distant partners, mainly by way of travel and commerce. Interaction gives people the chance 'to see the cities of many humans, and to learn about their minds,' as Homer says in praise of Odysseus right at the start of the Odyssey. Culture, including Greek culture, requires intercultural contact."

Classicists who speak of the "Greek miracle" may pretend to be historians, but such claims are no more historical than Muslim celebrations of the "miraculous" appearance of Muhammad and the rise of Islam from a vacuum of ignorance and stubborn opposition. Modern historiography does not content itself with the uncritical recounting of miracles; awe is not encountered in the failure to explain phenomena, but in the process by which explanations are constructed.

To be able to conceive of human collectivities as organisms that are born, develop, interact, and decline in time is a humbling activity...or it ought to be. Understanding how every explanation, no matter what it accomplishes, leaves so much un-explained, is productive of both knowledge and awe.