Enlightenment historiography rendered all past cultures preparatory to a European telos

Evidence

Endowed with a new structure by the Enlightenment, history ceased to be a narrative of moral instruction and became a structure of thought that encompasses all human experience. The infinitely varied experiences of countless societies and cultures of the past began to represent a collective monolith driven by a Geist on a linear trajectory toward the goal of progressive improvement, what Walter Benjamin called “the infinite perfectibility of mankind.” Founded on the assumption that time has a homogenous teleological structure, this theory has internalized the conception that all earlier phases of history and human experience are preparatory for what is to come, which always is better than what has gone before. And what is to come is always European or European-inspired. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 216

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the theology of progress in Benjaminian terms as teleological, homogenized, self-perfecting history.
• XREF: Connects to Adorno/Horkheimer’s critique of Enlightenment instrumental reason as domination.