The ‘all civilizations degrade nature’ argument masks a dogmatic doctrine of predetermined progress

Evidence

But the disagreement cannot be resolved just by recourse to quantitative data. The argument insisting on preindustrial degradation stands in collusion with not only a conception of history that is predeterminative but also one that squarely rests on a dogmatic doctrine of progress. This narrative insists that any society, “civilization,” or culture would have done exactly what the West has in fact done had it stood in its place, the logic being that progress is inevitable and that it happens to have (or, alternatively, must have) a price. The question that, among others, is never raised is why such massive degradations didn’t take place elsewhere and before modern Europe came along. In this narrative, it seems that the questions pertaining to the specific conditions that made destructive modernity possible are readily universalized within a trajectory that knows nothing but predetermined progress. This is not merely a historical force, but metaphysics galore. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 961 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Civilizational decline is probable but never inevitable; Progress theology converts its own destructiveness into exceptions while exaggerating premodern harm; Accusing a civilization of fixity presupposes belief in progress (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Arguments downplaying preindustrial degradation smuggle in a dogma of inevitable progress. #corroborates (0.95) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 961