The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (Studies in Critical Social Sciences (Brill Academic))
Ricardo Duchesne
Language: English
Pages: 527
ISBN: 9004232761
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This extensively researched book argues that the development of a libertarian culture was an indispensable component of the rise of the West. The roots of the West's superior intellectual and artistic creativity should be traced back to the aristocratic warlike culture of Indo-European speakers. Among the many fascinating topics discussed are: the ascendancy of multicultural historians and the degradation of European history; China's ecological endowments and imperial windfalls; military revolutions in Europe 1300-1800; the science and chivalry of Henry the Navigator; Judaism and its contribution to Western rationalism; the cultural richness of Max Weber versus the intellectual poverty of Pomeranz, Wong, Goldstone, Goody, and A.G. Frank; change without progress in the East; Hegel's Phenomenology of the [Western] Spirit; Nietzsche and the education of the Homeric Greeks; Kojeve's master-slave dialectic and the Western state of nature; Christian virtues and German aristocratic expansionism.
“unity of mankind” (Dawson 1935). Later I shall argue that the concept of “unsocial man” was articulated by Western philosophers out of the historical experience of the West’s singular exhibition of a pattern of progression amidst much strife and aggression. In this respect, this term, even though it was 31 Kant’s idea on the “unsocial sociability of men” is contained in his essay “An Idea For a Universal History From a Cosmopolitan Point of View,” in On History, edited by Lewis White Beck
early on in its history possible, whereas Europe’s division resulted in the generation of a highly competitive inter-state system which promoted technological innovations and the pursuit of power. I will address this argument later. What I wish to emphasize now is Diamond’s own cultural relativism and humanitarian (scientific) materialism. He is an evolutionary biologist who thinks that history can be made into a science with the proper employment of fields like molecular biology, geography,
not follow that those regions 42 At one point, Manning proposes this rather revealing question: “Does world history encompass the history of Europe and North America?…Does world history conflict with the histories of Europe and North America? What historical works based in US and European history make substantial contributions to the understanding of world history” (102)? Should it not be self-evident that world history should encompass the histories of Europe and North America, and the
it with an exceptionally high number of book reviews, review-essays (including my own), conference sessions, web based discussions and prizes. Re-Orient was the recipient of the World History Association “First Book Prize” in 1999, and The American 2 http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/agfrank/ eurocentrism over sinocentrism 75 Sociological Association “Political Economy of World-Systems Book Award” in 2000. By 2004, it was in its sixth printing, including a fourth printing, as of 2002, by the
China as a society dominated by high mortality rates and regular famines (positive checks) rather than by fertility controls or “preventive” checks. While the Chinese pattern was 110 chapter two very different from, and far more complex than, the Western model, it was also characterized by low fertility and moderate mortality. They clearly contrast their position with Malthus as follows: Whereas Malthus regarded famines as the major form of positive check in China, we highlight the role of