Enlightenment universalism, despite Eurocentrism, respected non-European civilizations

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 (#complicates, 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 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Dialectic of Enlightenment targeted the whole Western rationalist tradition, not just Marxism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 781; Ottoman decline freed orientalism to aid Enlightenment anti-Christian universalism — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 111; Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. #complicates (0.86) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193
• Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority #complicates (0.82) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119
• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with an imperialist superiority complex #complicates (0.80)
• The Enlightenment assumed European society was the apex of human achievement #complicates (0.79) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 517
• Colonial universalism disguised European Christian values as transcendent truths #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 49
• Theoretical universalizations can recuperate difference into old Enlightenment universalist frameworks #complicates (0.74) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 409
• European universalism presumed all societies share Europe’s underlying structure #complicates (0.74) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 518
• Treating Muslim identity as incidental underwrites the Enlightenment’s universalism claim #complicates (0.72)
• Eurocentrism positions European norms as the implied endpoint of world history #complicates (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1140
• Western modernity is a hegemonic particularism disguised as universalism #complicates (0.72) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 153
• Ethnophilosophy persists as a challenge to Western philosophy’s universalist pretensions #complicates (0.71) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 487