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Portrait of Talal Asad

Talal Asad

(1932) Anthropologist

23 quotes in 234 categories

Talal Asad is an anthropologist, best known for Anthropology & the Colonial Encounter.

Quick Facts About Talal Asad

Born: March 31, 1932
Profession: Anthropologist
Notable works: Anthropology & the Colonial Encounter

About Talal Asad

Talal Asad is a Saudi-born British cultural anthropologist who is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His prolific body of work mainly focuses on religiosity, Middle Eastern studies, postcolonialism, and notions of power, law, and discipline. He is also known for his writing calling for an anthropology of secularism.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Talal Asad

The propensity to intellectualize is itself both essential and dangerous. I think in our modern world we are much more aware of…

Character

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Certainly in order to understand the natural world one needs clarity, logic, and the capacity for theory building. But that understanding tends…

Building

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I think the approach to Islam as a tradition is helpful. Tradition helps us to focus on questions about authority and temporality,…

Approach

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Language has multiple uses, and is embedded in different forms of life. It is not necessary to have this grand concept of…

Behave

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Believers are often thought of as people who have some kind of private conviction or repudiation of something, whereas "the faithful" refers…

Behavior

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You do not need intellectuality for deep faith. You do not need it for behaving humanely towards people whether fellow Muslims or…

Argument

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The Genealogical Science is a wonderful account of how old-fashioned race science has come to be re-defined by resort to the most…

Accounts

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In liberal society we claim that freedom of speech is sacred and therefore has an absolute character. But we know (or should…

Absolutes

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“The construction of civilizational difference is not exclusive in any simple sense. The de-essentialization of Islam is paradigmatic for all thinking about…

Christianity

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For the law, the clarity of language and the finality of judgment is crucial, because you have to decide a case one…

Absolutes

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You should never employ your intellect but only that it is not essential to exercise it in order to live a humane…

Courses

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The notion of "humanity" as a form of transcendence derives, I think, from the conviction that intellectuality possesses an absolute power, from…

Ability

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I do not think there is such a thing as a "clash of civilizations." When I say that Muslims as Muslims cannot…

Civilization

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Why is it that aggression in the name of God shocks secular liberal sensibilities, whereas the act of killing in the name…

Aggression

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Tradition is an aspiration to connect the Self with the Other. One "internalizes" the Other as one acquires a sense of what…

Acquire

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I do not criticize religion as such, but I criticize the concept and the definition of "religion" - as I said in…

Concepts

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“Modern sovereignty, whether expressed through killing in battle or the torture of suspects, brings together the desire to build up and the…

Compassion

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I'm not criticizing how people experience what they might call spirituality. I am interested in looking critically at something else - at…

Criticize

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Tradition is not something a man can learn; not a thread he picks up when he feels like it; any more than…

Ancestor

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It seems to me perfectly possible to act humanely towards other beings, whether humans or animals or plants. One simply has to…

Animal

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Agency has become a catch word. In a way, this intoxication with ‘agency’ is the product of liberal individualism. The ability of…

Ability

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To behave "humanely" it is perfectly possible to do without the notion of "humanity."

Behave

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I think we need to think about Islamic tradition as a way of asking questions that cut across (and transgress) the assumptions…

Asking

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