Civilization is a modern European construction that defines Europeans by excluding their barbarian others

Evidence

While, thus, the idea of civilization in Western cultures and modern political theories is a familiar reading grid for the canon of Western political thought, my own analysis of the theme brings another critical layer to bear, one inspired by postcolonial studies and contrapuntal readings. This involves considering the very notion of ‘civilization’ as problematic, as a construction of modernity, a way of discriminating (literally and CDguratively) between Europeans and their civility on one side and the barbarian or savage ‘others’ on the other. In the end, the interpretations mentioned above, from Collingwood to Strauss to Kraynak, as perceptive as they are, still presuppose a certain European, modern, idea of civilization and consider it from within (from the point of view of the “civilized,” modelled upon European modernity). Consequently, the others of this civilization are not considered – their supposed ‘savagery’ remains also unquestioned. With the hindsight of postcolonial studies, critical race and gender approaches to canonical texts, we can now explore what this civilization means for those “others” and consider more seriously the impact of the European discourse of civilization on the rest of the world, the collateral damages of political modernity, so to speak. — , Stephanie B. Martens - Civilization and…, 33

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Gilroy’s conviviality and postcolonial critique of the civilization/barbarism binary that underwrites exclusionary solidarity. — connects to: Modern civilization produces its own barbarians from within rather than from outside — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 739; The concept of civilization emerged only in the modern era — , Stephanie B. Martens - Civilization and…, 37; Civilization is defined as culture writ large across all major theorists — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 107 (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Rare methodologically precise framing: turns civilization itself, not just its content, into the object of critique rather than reading the canon from within its own self-image.

Related

• The concept of civilization emerged only in the modern era (similarity 0.88)
• Discourses of civilization and modernity relied on repressing the non-Western Other (similarity 0.85)
• The coming barbarism may be the empire of civilization itself. (similarity 0.82)
• Civilization in the singular coexisted historically with many civilizations (similarity 0.81)
• Modernity is best understood as the civilization produced by global capitalism (similarity 0.81)
• Modernization is distinct from Westernization and does not create a universal civilization (similarity 0.80)
• Civilization is defined as culture writ large across all major theorists (similarity 0.79)
• Western civilization has not escaped universal civilizational evolutionary patterns (similarity 0.79)
• Civilization scholarship defines cultural identity hierarchically against what separates humans from other species. (similarity 0.79)
• Modern civilization produces its own barbarians from within rather than from outside (similarity 0.79)
• Modernity’s logic defines those outside Western norms as less than human (similarity 0.79)
• Modernity should be defined as the civilization capitalism built. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Discourses of civilization and modernity relied on repressing the non-Western Other #corroborates (0.92) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 484
• Islam served as Europe’s constitutive outsider against which its civilization defined itself #exemplifies (0.90)
• Modern civilization produces its own barbarians from within rather than from outside #complicates (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 739
• The concept of civilization emerged only in the modern era #expands (0.85) — , Stephanie B. Martens - Civilization and…, 37
• Civilization is defined as culture writ large across all major theorists #qualifies (0.75) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 107