A discussion on the necessity of oriental studies with a local view

I just found a very interesting lecture on some issues related to the relation of modern science and traditions by a world well-known traditionalist , Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. He believes that understanding eastern issues through solely western views is not appropriate as we conclude about our inside through a mirror picture, which is in some cases are the old picrure and it is not correctly updated. He gives examples of how the Greek knowledge introduced to Middle easterns during the Islamic Golden Age and how they made everything local.

Here is the link, which is a lecture given at MIT some time ago :

http://web.mit.edu/mitmsa/www/NewSite/libstuff/nasr/nasrspeech1.html

More details on the biography of Prof. Nasr as a predominant Iranian philosopher and an international icon in Islamic studies can be found at:

http://www.nasrfoundation.org/bios.html