Abstract-Oriented Culture

The Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture in contrast to the West which is a concrete-oriented culture. In an abstract- oriented culture things tend to be conceived as abstract while in a concrete-oriented culture things are conceived as being concrete. The fact that the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture explains certain interesting phenomena in the Arab-Islamic world.

The Arab-Islamic culture is abstract-oriented in many different ways. For example, in Islamic culture, God is highly abstract , and the meanings of words and sentences as well as beliefs are abstract such that only God truly understands the meanings of linguistic constructions and possesses the genuine comprehension of the contents of beliefs (given that God is abstract as beliefs and meanings are). This led the Muslims to widely disagree on the meanings and beliefs expressed in their religion paving the way for radically different interpretations of Islam. But a concrete-oriented culture such as the Western culture conceives God as manifested in a divine human being, namely Christ. Also in concrete-oriented culture beliefs and meanings tend to possess definite contents referring to concrete entities, and thus disagreements in this culture will be minimized contrary to what goes on in the Arab-Islamic culture.


The Arab-Islamic culture is abstract-oriented in the sense that God within this culture is highly abstract such that nothing is similar to Him as the Quran says. And the Arab-Islamic culture is also abstract-oriented in the sense that meanings and beliefs in this culture are abstract such that, from the perspective of the Arab-Islamic mind, humans are not able to fully understand the meanings of concepts and the contents of beliefs-;- rather only God is able to do so. In addition, the Arab culture is abstract in the sense that the identity of the Arabs is abstract. In fact, Arabic language is the identity of the Arabs. But languages are abstract constructions. Therefore, the identity of the Arabs is abstract. In this sense also the Arab culture is an abstract-oriented culture. Yet, in the West, identity is determined only by a concrete legal document and not by an abstract entity. In this sense the Western culture is a concrete-oriented culture.

Reality itself is an abstract mental construction in the minds of most of the Arabs and Muslims. Since the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture, it follows that, from the perspective of the Islamic mind, the Islamic nation is an abstract mental construction in the minds of the Muslims. And the Islamic nation is mentally constructed as the nation of Muhammad. Therefore, any critique of Muhammad is equivalent to declaring war against the Islamic nation and actually invading it. This is why any critique of Muhammad leads to violent responses from some Muslims as if they are responding to an actual invasion. The land of the Muslims is not the land which they reside in and walk on-;- rather it is an abstract mental construction in the minds of the Muslims. This is why Muslims conceive any critique of Islam as an actual invasion which requires an actual military response.


The fact that the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture explains why the Arab-Islamic communication pattern is deductive rather than inductive. The communication theorist Joerg Schmitz discussed the distinction between deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. Generally, the human mind relies on both the deductive and the inductive reasoning. But, according to Schmitz , some cultures are more oriented to deductive reasoning while others are more oriented to inductive reasoning. The people who are oriented to deductive reasoning rely on general theories when they reason and communicate while those who are oriented to inductive reasoning rely on experiences and experimentations when they reason and communicate. Now, in light of this distinction we can infer that the Arab-Islamic culture tends to use deductive communication while the West tends to use inductive communication.


Deductive communication consists of communicating general statements in order to reach general conclusions. But inductive communication consists of mentioning and communicating particular instances and examples of facts´-or-events in order to ultimately conclude some general conclusions. And since most of the Arabs and Muslims use deductive communication, they usually ask for the general conclusions instead of asking for particular and specific examples. And they usually mention general statements without mentioning´-or-describing particular examples. They do not intend to be vague rather they just want to know and speak about general conclusions without going into the details which might be discussed later on.

Now, the question is the following: why do most of the Arabs and Muslims rely on deductive communication instead of inductive communication? The answer resides in the fact that the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture. Since the Arab-Islamic culture is abstract-oriented, and given that general statements (such as all humans are mortal) are abstract, it is natural that the Arab-Islamic culture is oriented to communicating general statements instead of particular and specific statements expressing concrete facts´-or-events. This shows that the Arab-Islamic communication is deductive because the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture.



According to the current Arab-Islamic mind, we cannot genuinely know what reality is and what the universe is composed of because only God possesses the true knowledge of everything. But why is this belief dominant in the Arab-Islamic culture? The fact that the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture explains why most Arabs and Muslims believe that human beings are not able to truly know the universe and the nature of reality. Since the Arab-Islamic culture is abstract-oriented, the Arab-Islamic mind conceives reality and the universe as abstract entities. Yet abstract entities are supposed to be unknowable to us. Therefore, from the perspective of the Arab-Islamic mind, reality and the universe are unknowable to us. This shows that the fact that the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture caused the Arab-Islamic mind to believe that reality and the universe are incomprehensible. Now, abstract entities are supposed to be unknown because they are abstract and hence they are not causally and materially related to us.

In addition, the highest moral values in the Arab-Islamic moral system are honor and respect. You reward Arabs and Muslims through honoring and respecting them. And this is done through explicitly praising their personal values, their tradition and their historical achievements in science, mathematics and philosophy. Yet honor and respect are not concrete entities rather they are abstract. In this sense also the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture. Most Arabs and Muslims ask to be honored and respected more than they ask for concrete gains and benefits because the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture, and honor and respect are abstract entities.


And since the Arab-Islamic culture is an abstract-oriented culture, most Arabs and Muslims are not able to perceive each other as concrete entities, and thus they are not able to conceive each other as independent individuals. This is why Arabs and Muslims were not able and are not able today to form democratic societies and states.

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