Formulation of the Claim
Arkoun points out that critique itself can turn into a new form of mythologization.
Explanation
For Arkoun, this claim is tied to the risks of turning the tools of critique into a closed form that reproduces what it seeks to dismantle, so that mythologization becomes embedded within critical discourse itself. The danger, then, lies not only in the object of critique, but in the way critique is constructed when it hardens and acquires final authority.
Here, the meaning remains connected to Arkoun’s project of deconstructing the mechanisms of sanctification and closure within religious and intellectual thought, without merely replacing one certainty with another. The warning is directed at every discourse that claims emancipation yet reproduces the same structure of absoluteness.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom appears in a broader context in which Arkoun warns that reform or critique, if it does not reconsider its tools and limits, may become part of the very problem it seeks to overcome. It illuminates an aspect of his general thesis, which refuses to settle for critical slogans unless the deep structures that produce and reproduce mythologization are touched.
Limits of the Claim
This atom should not be made to say more than it does: it alerts us to a methodological and epistemological danger, but it does not by itself present a complete theory of mythologization or of its history.