Eighteenth-century thinkers believed in one universal French-inspired civilization.

Evidence

Many Orientalists, however, developed images of Muslim and Arab peoples that either perpetuated medieval stereotypes or else reflected more contemporary assumptions, bolstered at times by appeals to science, about the intrinsic cultural and even racial superiority of Europeans over Muslims. An example of the latter type of thinking can be found in the work of Ernest Renan, a French philologist and scholar of religion. In many ways, he represented the growing tendency in much of nineteenth-century Orientalism to move away from Enlightenment universalism, which tended to stress commonalities between all human beings (including Muslims), and toward a worldview that emphasized the fundamental differences between civilizations, with Western civilization seen as inherently superior to Islamic civilization. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

By the nineteenth century, however, this Enlightenment universalism was rapidly being replaced by an emphasis on differences between people and civilizations. Europe developed what Etienne Balibar calls an “imperialist superiority complex.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193; Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119; Revolutionary logic granted France a mandate to transform all humankind. (+3 more)

Related

• Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. (similarity 0.91)
• Colonial ideology combined fiscal self-interest with Enlightenment trade beliefs. (similarity 0.88)
• Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority (similarity 0.86)
• Even the most learned, sympathetic Orientalists converged on Islam’s latent inferiority (similarity 0.84)
• Western imperial particularism was disguised as universal civilization (similarity 0.82)
• Nineteenth-century theory defined every civilization in relation to a singular Western ideal (similarity 0.82)
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism portrayed Islam as a monolithic, fixed, inferior essence. (similarity 0.82)
• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with a racialized superiority complex toward Muslims. (similarity 0.82)
• Enlightenment social science ranked all societies on one West-defined developmental scale (similarity 0.81)
• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with ideologies of inherent racial inferiority (similarity 0.81)
• Orientalist doctrine attributes untruthfulness to a racialized Oriental mind (similarity 0.81)
• Colonial expansion and Orientalist essentializing emerged together in the nineteenth century. (similarity 0.80)
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism essentialized Muslims as intrinsically inferior during colonial expansion. (similarity 0.80)
• Orientalism’s ontological rigidity makes its fantasies nearly impossible to dismantle (similarity 0.80)
• Said’s Orientalism changed the meaning of ‘Orientalism’ from benevolent human interest in the East to an apparatus of knowledge and writing aligned with western imperial power. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. #contradicts (0.80) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193
• Revolutionary logic granted France a mandate to transform all humankind. #expands (0.70)
• Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority #qualifies (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119
• French republican policy held French civilization universally applicable despite claiming to respect African customs #exemplifies (0.60)
• Integrationists cast French as the ordering Logos over colonized anarchy #complicates (0.50)