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Edward Said has provided a valuable analysis of the relation between humanist culture and imperialism, one that can be supplemented by an understanding of the ontological basis of humanism. Heidegger and Nietzsche have pointed out that humanism is not derived directly from classical Greek thought, but rather comes from the Roman appropriation of the Greeks, a transformation that is the source of the rootlessness of European thought. The humanist emphasis on abstraction as a mode of thought that is alienated from being is related to the imperial will to power.