Provincializing “Western Civilization” and European Exceptionalist Narratives: Where do we Begin?
By Paul Horton.
When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought about Western Civilization, he reportedly replied that, “I think it would be a very good idea.” While Gandhi certainly may not have spoken so pithily in response to such a question, he was, to be sure, a stern critic of “the West,” of the value of Western ideas of progress, capitalism, and technology.
Ghanan-British philosopher, ethicist, historian, and columnist Kwame Anthony Appiah, takes Gandhi’s critique a step further: “I think you should give up the very idea of western civilization. At worst an obstacle to facing some of the great political challenges of our time…I believe that western civilization is not at a good idea at all, and western culture is no improvement.” (Appiah, “There is no such thing as western civilization,” The Guardian, Nov. 9, 2016).
At best, Appiah argues, the idea of western civilization is an aspirational set of values that embraces the Arnoldian (Matthew) concept of collecting “the best that has been thought and said” and teaching the best to elevate the culture, or more precisely, those who would set cultural standards. Core course at Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Chicago famously collected “the best that has been thought and said” in “great books” collections for use in undergraduate and adult education classes in the early twentieth century, effectively canonizing western intellectual history within elite institutions of higher learning in the United States.
But Appiah contends that every culture or “civilization” or region could do much the same, so that what passes for knowledge in the western tradition is hopelessly skewed. Keep in mind that Appiah not diminishing the value of the “western” political tradition, rather he is claiming that the construction and selection of the category of “western” is arbitrary at the outset.
The tensions that exist within the discipline of history around these questions inform the current discussions CONTINUE READING: Provincializing “Western Civilization” and European Exceptionalist Narratives: Where do we Begin? - Living in Dialogue
