Deconstructing Orientalism Through Philosophical Premises: Edward W. Said As A Case Study

Since his publication of 'Orientalism', Edward Said had received sea-waves of observations and critiques which tried to question the scientific premises on which he had built his work. This paper is an attempt to address the following questions: What's Orientalism according to Edward Said? What are the forms of Orientalism that Said identified in the tradition and history of Orientalists? How did Edward Said shrewdly and intellectually elaborate some of his ideas to refute Orientalism on philosophical grounds? And what were the reactions of some western thinkers and Orientalists towards his use of philosophical methodology to refute the deeply ingrained beliefs of Orientalism? Those are some of the unexhaustive themes which this paper aims to deal with, acknowledging the very fact that Orientalism can be studied from different scientific angles.