Trans-Atlantic Muslims Of a Different Faith

There are few works of American political philosophy that are hailed by leaders on all sides of the American political spectrum as classics. One such work is "Democracy in America" by the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville, who published this in-depth analysis of American society and politics after his extensive travels in the United States (Volume 1 in 1835, Volume 2 in 1840). This book has become a staple for American political education and is required reading for many American high school or college students.

The first chapter of the second volume begins with the phrase "I think that in no country in the civilized world is less attention paid to philosophy than in the United States." While these words may be interpreted as a mark of European arrogance, Tocqueville goes on to explain that Americans have developed their own individual methods by which they tackle philosophical questions. These are characterized by attempts "to evade the bondage of system and habit, of family maxims, class opinions, and, in some degree, of national prejudices; to accept tradition only as a means of information, and existing facts only as a lesson to be used in doing otherwise and doing better; to seek the reason of things for oneself, and in oneself alone; to tend to results without being bound to means, and to strike through the form to the substance..."