Enlightenment social science ranked all societies on one West-defined developmental scale

Evidence

First, it allows us to characterize and classify societies into different categories—i.e., “Western,” “non-Western.” It is a tool to think with. It sets a certain structure of thought and knowledge in motion. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 509 (#expands, via linked claim)

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 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Enlightenment social science mapped all world societies onto one West-modeled progress scale; The West concept classifies, represents, compares, and evaluates societies — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 509; Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193 (+2 more)

Related

• Enlightenment social science mapped all world societies onto one West-modeled progress scale (similarity 0.92)
• Enlightenment thought ranked all societies on one universal civilizational scale. (similarity 0.84)
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. (similarity 0.84)
• A shared East-West binary grounds vast and diverse bodies of thought (similarity 0.82)
• The West concept classifies, represents, compares, and evaluates societies (similarity 0.82)
• Eighteenth-century thinkers believed in one universal French-inspired civilization. (similarity 0.81)
• The Enlightenment provided both the explanation and the measure of human progress (similarity 0.81)
• Even the most learned, sympathetic Orientalists converged on Islam’s latent inferiority (similarity 0.81)
• Nineteenth-century theory defined every civilization in relation to a singular Western ideal (similarity 0.80)
• Early social science absorbed West-versus-Rest civilizational stereotypes into its frameworks. (similarity 0.79)
• The Enlightenment’s self-image required the Rest as its suppressed opposite. (similarity 0.79)
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism portrayed Islam as a monolithic, fixed, inferior essence. (similarity 0.78)
• 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 0.78)
• Modernization theory repackaged Orientalist racism in social-science guise (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Enlightenment social science mapped all world societies onto one West-modeled progress scale #corroborates (0.98)
• The West concept classifies, represents, compares, and evaluates societies #expands (0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 509
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. #qualifies (0.72) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193