Rather, he saw critical reason more as the “dominating characteristic of modernity, with all its achievements and weaknesses”.[29] Like enlightenment through critical reason, Arab unity still remained the ultimate goal in the eyes of Zurayk. His approach was distinguished by an “ethical concern for unity’s ends and means. This unity, for him, [was] not the telos of an inexorable ethnic or religious destiny, but a form of solidarity for mutual empowerment by democratic means aimed at serving both individuals’ and communities’ dignity and freedom”.[30]