Spring 2010 - Interpretation

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I n t e r p r e t a t i o n
none of the six philosophers visited the Orient or spoke its languages; their
arguments were based on limited and, at times, erroneous information; their
works may have been partly motivated by a desire to criticize European
governments by analogy; and some of their statements were dictated by the
sheer logic of their intellectual constructs. Overall, their works clarify the
essential distinction between the Orient and the Occident, but they also shed
some light on the roots of the prevailing prejudice against Eastern people in
the contemporary world. Thus, Curtis remarks on both Oriental intolerance
(305) and the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 only to find refuge
in the Ottoman Empire (310).