Origin of Oriental Studies
The development of oriental studies in regions such as Asia and Britain can be attributed to the efforts of early scholars who studied in the Old Catholic schools. In Calcutta, the efforts made by civil servants from England greatly contributed to the development of the studies.
Scholars also used to work in teams to establish fact finding missions and discover new ideas. Scholars who relied on individual efforts did not achieve significant results compared to those who worked in groups. For example, individual studies in Bengal initiated by Jones did not yield positive results (Swchab, Patterson-Black and Reinking 35).
Appearance
The world of appearance as portrayed by the philosophers is a product of erroneous and imaginative interpretations where people tend to paint the actual shape and size of things. However, interpretations of the world of appearance may be affected by blinded inclinations where fear or passion may corrupt human judgments.
The philosophers blame human intellect for painting the world of appearance with the wrong colors of perceptions. The paintings have led to differences between real experience and the actual appearance of the world. To develop the right perception of appearance, it is therefore important to abandon the principle of intellect and perceive things in their actual appearance (Gramsci 134).
Direct Rule and Hegemony
The relationship between hegemony and power is influenced by the activities of the ruling class and the intellectuals in the society. However, it is not easy to determine the relationship between production and the activities of the intellectuals. The intellectuals play the official role of influencing the decisions of the ruling class. They also determine the relationship between the political structure and the social hegemony in the society (Nietzsche 110).
Truth and Power
The intellectuals in America and England could not deny the close relationship between power and knowledge. Philosophers have tried to convey the relationship by using elements of communication such as language and nonverbal signals. Knowledge became an element that was portrayed through language and had significant impacts on economic systems, organizations of power, and tools of change.
However, the relationship between truth and power stems from the conditions which must be achieved for truth to prevail. Truth has the power to establish certain constraints. Every society has its own constraints of truth which must be observed. However, the power of truth should not be confused with a system of organized procedures where regulations, distributions, and productions take place (Foucault 58).
Crisis of Orientalism
Despite the role of oriental studies in enhancing understanding of different issues in the society, many people tend to criticize the studies for not being very elaborative in their work. Other people do not understand the role of oriental scholars and their studies. In most cases, oriental studies have been perceived as academic materials that are too much inclined towards the historical aspects of the society. For example, traditional Orientalism emphasizes on historical themes (Abdel-Malek 112).
The society has not been active in embracing the oriental scholars and their works. For instance, in some countries the works of oriental scholars are not given priority when dealing with issues that require reference from oriental materials. Oriental studies have not been given a role to play in the contemporary studies and research.
The studies can supply secondary data for research on traditional issues of culture and political development. However, the sources are not equally distributed all over other world due to changes that are common in the contemporary society (Abdel-Malek 104).
Works Cited
Abdel-Malek, Anowar. “Orientalism in Crisis”. Diogenes, 44.1 (1963):104-112. Print.
Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. Print
Gramsci, Antonio. The Modern Prince, New York: international Publishers, 1957. Print.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Human, All Too Human, London: Nebraska University Press, 1984. Print.
Swchab, Raymond, Gene Patterson-Black, and Victor Reinking. The Oriental Renaissance: Europe’s Discovery of India and the East, 1680 -1880 (Social Foundations of Aesthetic Forms), New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. Print.