Eurocentrism
Merina Henam
Term paper: Eurocentrism Then and Now
West is considered to be the pioneer of the modern world. West itself considered to be grand, superior and pristine than the rest of the world. This notion brings in the concept of Eurocentrism. Though the term was coined much later in the late twentieth century with the advent of decolonization, Eurocentrism could be traced to the early Renaissance where classical works of Greek and Roman were revived. The Renaissance movement fostered the growth of European civilization. Europe became more self-centered with the advent of imperialism which took place around the fifteenth century, then the scientific revolution and the commercial revolution followed the imperial conquest, finally the colonizing mission which reached its peak in the nineteenth century followed by the industrial revolution heightened the sense of European superiority. Eurocentrism runs deep in colonialism. The West used science, religion or culture and philosophy to establish its superiority. As Rajiv Malhotra points out “During the colonial era, the naive assumption of Western superiority was given authority by thinkers such as Hegel, who developed a ‘universal’ theory of history, which was in essence, a theory of European history in which the rest of the world was taken to be objects rather than subjects”1. Hegel’s idea of history is purely Eurocentric. As Rajiv Malhotra further points out “Hegel saw the evolution of human history as a unified totality, proceeding via the evolution of ‘world spirit’. The ‘world spirit for Hegel was Western, with other cultures subsumed to the dustbin of history, forced to adapt to the West or be trampled underfoot by the ‘world spirit’2”. All non-European civilizations were seen as barbaric, savage
Term paper: Eurocentrism Then and Now
West is considered to be the pioneer of the modern world. West itself considered to be grand, superior and pristine than the rest of the world. This notion brings in the concept of Eurocentrism. Though the term was coined much later in the late twentieth century with the advent of decolonization, Eurocentrism could be traced to the early Renaissance where classical works of Greek and Roman were revived. The Renaissance movement fostered the growth of European civilization. Europe became more self-centered with the advent of imperialism which took place around the fifteenth century, then the scientific revolution and the commercial revolution followed the imperial conquest, finally the colonizing mission which reached its peak in the nineteenth century followed by the industrial revolution heightened the sense of European superiority. Eurocentrism runs deep in colonialism. The West used science, religion or culture and philosophy to establish its superiority. As Rajiv Malhotra points out “During the colonial era, the naive assumption of Western superiority was given authority by thinkers such as Hegel, who developed a ‘universal’ theory of history, which was in essence, a theory of European history in which the rest of the world was taken to be objects rather than subjects”1. Hegel’s idea of history is purely Eurocentric. As Rajiv Malhotra further points out “Hegel saw the evolution of human history as a unified totality, proceeding via the evolution of ‘world spirit’. The ‘world spirit for Hegel was Western, with other cultures subsumed to the dustbin of history, forced to adapt to the West or be trampled underfoot by the ‘world spirit’2”. All non-European civilizations were seen as barbaric, savage
References: 3. Kenneth N. Addison, We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident… An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Roots of Racism and Slavery in America (Published May 16,2009), Chapter-2, Eurocentrism: The Metaphysics of Western Hegemony, page 63. 4. Kenneth N. Addison, We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident… An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Roots of Racism and Slavery in America (Published May 16,2009), Chapter-2, Eurocentrism: The Metaphysics of Western Hegemony, page 63. 7. Sanjay Subhramanyam, Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia, (Modern Asian Studies 31, 1997, Cambridge University Press), page748. 3.Edward Said, Orientalism (Published in 1978).