The Elephant and the Three Blind Men: On Knowledge and Contradictory Biases

Abstract

The article presents the mechanisms of knowledge production in the Arab region, reviewing the formation pathways of the first and second foundations of the Arab humanities and social academia, as well as the three waves of Arab (Islamic) criticism. It focuses on positivism, mono-disciplinarity, and ahistoricism, along with the epistemic centricities they have constructed. It employs the parable of 'the elephant and the three blind men' to illustrate how these biases contradict knowledge, while envisioning the prospects of overcoming them toward an actual transition to a new critical paradigm. Among various examples it relies upon, the article highlights the significance of the Khaldunian and Palestinian cases within the living epistemological laboratory that aims to elaborate a decolonial antithesis of contemporary Arab humanities and social knowledge .