Research Catalog

Title

European universalism : the rhetoric of power / Immanuel Wallerstein.

Author

Wallerstein, Immanuel Maurice, 1930-2019

Publication

New York : New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xv, 94 pages; 19 cm

Summary

Ever since the Enlightenment, Western intervention around the world has been justified by appeals to notions of civilization, development, and progress. The assumption has been that such ideas are universal, encrusted in natural law. But, as Immanuel Wallerstein argues in this short and elegant philippic, these concepts are, in fact, not global. Rather, their genesis is firmly rooted in European thought and their primary function has been to provide justification for powerful states to impose their will against the weak under the smoke screen of what is supposed to be both beneficial to humankind and historically inevitable. With great acuity Wallerstein draws together discussions of the idea of orientalism, the right to intervene, and the triumph of science over the humanities to explain how strategies designed to promote particular Western interests have acquired an all-inclusive patina. Wallerstein concludes by advocating a true universalism that will allow critical appraisal of all justifications for intervention by the powerful against the weak. At a time when such intervention -- in the name of democracy and human rights -- has returned to the center stage of world politics, his treatise is both relevant and compelling.

Subject

• Social values > Political aspects
• Universalism
• Eurocentrism
• Civilization, Western
• Valeurs sociales > Aspect politique
• Universalisme
• Eurocentrisme
• Civilisation occidentale
• Social values > Political aspects
• Eurozentrismus
• Universalismus
• Wert
• Normen (menswetenschappen)
• Europe
• International peace and security
• Politics
• Civilization

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 85-86) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction : the politics of universalism -- 1. Whose right to intervene? Universal values against barbarism -- 2. Can one be a non-orientalist? Essentialist particularism -- 3. How do we know the truth? Scientific universalism -- 4. The power of ideas, the ideas of power : to give and to receive?

ISBN

• 1595580611
• 9781595580610

LCCN

• 2005056100
• 9781595580610

OCLC

• 62128054
• SCSB-10584817

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library