Formulation of the Claim
The phenomenon of suspicion toward the human sciences lies at the heart of the Arab-Islamic crisis as Arkoun describes it.
Explanation
Arkoun sees this suspicion not as a passing attitude, but as a sign of a deeper disorder in Arab-Islamic intellectual culture, where trust in critical knowledge narrows and the spaces for free inquiry weaken. For this reason, suspicion toward the human sciences is linked, in his view, to the retreat of critical thought, not merely to a passing reservation about particular disciplines.
Arkoun places this attitude within a broader climate that limits cultural and artistic creativity, and makes engagement with the human being, history, and society less open to modern tools of understanding. The human sciences, in this context, are not external to the crisis, but one of its manifestations, revealing the limits of prevailing thought.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom appears within Arkoun’s diagnosis of the Arab-Islamic crisis as a crisis of knowledge and methods, not a crisis of religious contents alone. Thus suspicion toward the human sciences stands alongside other manifestations, such as the weakness of critical thought and the timidity of cultural and artistic creativity, within a single network of obstacles that prevent the formation of a more open consciousness.
Limits of the Claim
This atom should not be understood as a comprehensive judgment on all intellectual practices in the Arab-Islamic sphere, nor as a denial of the existence of serious research works. It points instead to a general tendency of doubt and mistrust as Arkoun presents it, within the context of his cultural critique.
Brief Evidence
and suspicion toward the human sciences
the weakness of critical thought, the timidity of cultural and artistic creativity, and suspicion toward the human sciences