The Domonique Strauss-Kahn Affair, Civilizational Thinking, and the Western Illusion of Human Nature
When we study a particular way of thinking, or conceptual schema, it is easiest to look for sites -- teaching texts or reference works -- where there is an exposition of the schema or way of thinking. But what is at least as revealing is what people do with that schema or way of thinking: its social life, one might say. To study this requires noting the schema's appearances out and about in the world. It is for this reason that I am struck by the use of "civilizational thinking" in two different pieces from the New York Times about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair, both published on the 21st of May. The first excerpt is from an article about DSK's wife, Anne Sinclair, and it included observations from Elie Wiesel, who--the article tells us--"was a close friend of Ms. Sinclair and her first husband." Expressing "sadness for Ms. Sinclair," the Times reported, Mr. Weisel invoked a "Talmudic saying": " 'No one is the owner