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Overview
In the late eighteenth century, an array of European political thinkers attacked the very foundations of imperialism, arguing passionately that empire-building was not only unworkable, costly, and dangerous, but manifestly unjust. Enlightenment against Empire is the first book devoted to the anti-imperialist political philosophies of an age often regarded as affirming imperial ambitions. Sankar Muthu argues that thinkers such as Denis Diderot, Immanuel Kant, and Johann Gottfried Herder developed an understanding of humans as inherently cultural agents and therefore necessarily diverse. These thinkers rejected the conception of a culture-free "natural man." They held that moral judgments of superiority or inferiority could be made neither about entire peoples nor about many distinctive cultural institutions and practices.
Muthu shows how such arguments enabled the era's anti-imperialists to defend the freedom of non-European peoples to order their own societies. In contrast to those who praise "the Enlightenment" as the triumph of a universal morality and critics who view it as an imperializing ideology that denigrated cultural pluralism, Muthu argues instead that eighteenth-century political thought included multiple Enlightenments. He reveals a distinctive and underappreciated strand of Enlightenment thinking that interweaves commitments to universal moral principles and incommensurable ways of life, and that links the concept of a shared human nature with the idea that humans are fundamentally diverse. Such an intellectual temperament, Muthu contends, can broaden our own perspectives about international justice and the relationship between human unity and diversity.
Synopsis
In the late eighteenth century, an array of European political thinkers attacked the very foundations of imperialism, arguing passionately that empire-building was not only unworkable, costly, and dangerous, but manifestly unjust. Enlightenment against Empire is the first book devoted to the anti-imperialist political philosophies of an age often regarded as affirming imperial ambitions. Sankar Muthu argues that thinkers such as Denis Diderot, Immanuel Kant, and Johann Gottfried Herder developed an understanding of humans as inherently cultural agents and therefore necessarily diverse. These thinkers rejected the conception of a culture-free "natural man." They held that moral judgments of superiority or inferiority could be made neither about entire peoples nor about many distinctive cultural institutions and practices. Muthu shows how such arguments enabled the era's anti-imperialists to defend the freedom of non-European peoples to order their own societies. In contrast to those who praise "the Enlightenment" as the triumph of a universal morality and critics who view it as an imperializing ideology that denigrated cultural pluralism, Muthu argues instead that eighteenth-century political thought included multiple Enlightenments. He reveals a distinctive and underappreciated strand of Enlightenment thinking that interweaves commitments to universal moral principles and incommensurable ways of life, and that links the concept of a shared human nature with the idea that humans are fundamentally diverse. Such an intellectual temperament, Muthu contends, can broaden our own perspectives about international justice and the relationship between human unity and diversity.Editorials
Foreign Affairs
This young political philosopher has written a well-argued first book that is as original as it is convincing. His goal is to excavate a strand of Enlightenment thought in Diderot, Kant, and Herder that has gone both unstudied and unheeded: anti-imperialism. Diderot was incensed by the behavior of Europeans beyond Europe's borders and denounced the practices of trading companies and imperial conquerors and the corrupt pretensions of European civilization. Kant, the subject of this book's most impressive chapters, argued for a cosmopolitan definition of justice that applied equally to all societies. "Freedom," he wrote, "is the only original right belonging to every man by virtue of his humanity" — a stern repudiation of paternalism and imperialism. Herder, far more suspicious of "wholesale judgments," emphasized the importance of human diversity.Muthu identifies three philosophical strands in Enlightenment anti-imperialism: the individual's right to moral and political respect, the notion of humans as "cultural beings," and awareness of "moral incommensurability." This is nothing less than a reconciliation of moral universalism and a respect for pluralism, what Tzvetan Todorov argued for in On Human Diversity. Muthu is in the same league.
Foreign Affairs
A well-argued first book that is as original as it is convincing.Colonial Latin American Historical Review
Every now and then a book comes along to remind us once again that history and culture are not absolute terms. They are dynamic and relative to their past and present. Sankar Muthu has written such a book. His analysis clearly demonstrates that the historical process we have come to know as the 'Enlightenment' was really many enlightenments. . . . This book is highly recommended for students of history, philosophy, and culture.Perspectives on Politics
[A] rich and elegantly written book. . . . Muthu's provocative thesis is that moral universalism did not suffice to ground opposition to empire. . . . Enlightenment Against Empire moves beyond accounts of political positions into thoughtful reconstructions and syntheses of arguments, and among its many virtues is to remind us that work in the history of political thought need not be done in an antiphilosophical fashion.— Jacob T. Levy
Research in African Literatures
Inspired by a more multifaceted view of the Enlightenment, Muthu looks at a forgotten legacy from this period, its anti-imperialism.— Gregory Jusdanis
History of Political Thought
Enlightenment against Empire, dealing with European attitudes to the non-European world, is a valuable contributio. n. . . [T]his is an admirable study, handling an important subject with insight and care.— John Hope Mason