The Enlightenment was instrumental in building empire and colonization projects

Evidence

In his otherwise remarkable Enlightenment Against Empire (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), Sankar Muthu wishes to “pluralize” the Enlightenment by showing that Diderot, Kant, and Herder stood against empire and colonialism. While this is an eminently worthwhile project and an immense credit to Muthu, pluralizing the Enlightenment (driven by a humanistic impulse no less powerful than Said’s) will not change the ultimate fact that as a central domain, it not only massively promoted colonialism on the intellectual level but was in fact instrumental in building the projects of empire and colonization. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 587

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates what ‘pluralizing the Enlightenment’ means as a revisionist scholarly move and why Hallaq rejects its sufficiency.
• XREF: Ties to Said’s Orientalism, where the Enlightenment/colonialism link is foundational, and to debates in postcolonial theory. — connects to: Enlightenment serves as a tool for making people smaller and more governable — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 714; Capitalism capped the reach of Enlightenment emancipation through racialized colonial rule