Metaphysical Investigations

This article provides a comparative-analytical study of the thoughts of Reza Davari Ardakani and Edward Said, two of the most prominent contemporary critics of Western hegemony. The main problem of the article is the manner of Davari's metaphysical and Heideggerian reading of Edward Said's political-discursive and post-structuralist critique. Both thinkers share common starting points in areas such as the critique of the project of modernity, the inseparable link between knowledge and power, and the crisis of representation. The article argues that Davari's reading of Edward Said is a critical one. From Davari's perspective, Said's critique of phenomena like "Orientalism" and colonialism, though valuable on a political level, remains an "inadequate" and superficial critique because it fails to address the metaphysical roots of the crisis-namely, the technological and subjectivist nature of Western thought-and remains within the framework of humanist and secular concepts. The article concludes that from Davari's viewpoint, Said's critique is not an exit from the West, but is itself one of the last manifestations of the internal crisis of Western thought. This contrast illuminates the two main paradigms of the non-Western world's encounter with modernity: the paradigm of political-cultural reform versus metaphysical-existential rupture.

Keywords: Orientalism, Critique of the West, Modernity, Metaphysics, Post-structuralism, Heidegger

     

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