Paradigm Conflict within the Islamic-Arabic Neoclassical Development
The paradigm conflict is defined by two terms: liberal vs. political economy. The liberal paradigm deems that history should be compartmentalized and generalized. Political economy paradigm brings together all facets of knowledge and research to recreate and understand Islamic-Arabic history in a better light. At the center of the liberal paradigm is the mindset of superiority and the belief in the right of dominion over another. They see their ideal model, the West as the epicenter of all imperialistic and colonialists efforts, which displays itself as a culture of dominating influence and true power. On the other hand, the driving force behind political economy is a close attention paid to the human conflict and its importance within the political and economical development of an era in history.
Even before the start of the Neoclassical development in Egypt, the liberals were showing the inadequicies of their education system. “First slave to words, then vassal to a name,” is a famous quote from Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad and it shows the flaws of the modern education system. Even Pope himself stated in the footnote followed by the verse, “A recapitulation of the whole course of modern education described in this book, which confines youth to the study of words…and deludes them with names of party distinctions in the world”(Damrosch, 2701) . This verse will be used throughtout the paper to show that paradigm conflict between political economy and liberal and also to shed light on my thesis that the political economy handles history in a fair and objective manner. I will use chapter eight of Islamic Roots of Capitalism, The Reform Period, 1815-1837, The Development of Neoclassical Cultur ...