Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 385-413 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | Kantian Review |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 9 Aug 2019 |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2019 |
Abstract
Keywords
- anthropophagy, barbarism, climate theory, colonialism, Georg Forster, legal theory, native peoples, natural history, physical geography, racism, theory of race, travel writings
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Arts and Humanities(all)
- Philosophy
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In: Kantian Review, Vol. 24, No. 3, 09.2019, p. 385-413.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Kant on Race and Barbarism
T2 - Towards a More Complex View on Racism and Anti-Colonialism in Kant
AU - Eberl, Oliver
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - Whether Kant's late legal theory and his theory of race are contradictory in their account of colonialism has been a much-debated question that is also of highest importance for the evaluation of the Enlightenment's contribution to Europe's colonial expansion and the dispossession and enslavement of native and black peoples. This article discusses the problem by introducing the discourse on barbarism. This neglected discourse is the original and traditional European colonial vocabulary and served the justification of colonialism from ancient Greece throughout the Renaissance to the eighteenth century. Kant's explicit rejection of this discourse and its prejudices reveals his early critical stance toward colonial judgements of native peoples even before he developed his legal theory. This development of his critical position can be traced in his writings on race: although he makes racist statements in these texts, his theory of race is not meant to ground moral judgements on `races' or a racial hierarchy but to defend the unity of mankind under the given empirical reality of colonial hierarchies.
AB - Whether Kant's late legal theory and his theory of race are contradictory in their account of colonialism has been a much-debated question that is also of highest importance for the evaluation of the Enlightenment's contribution to Europe's colonial expansion and the dispossession and enslavement of native and black peoples. This article discusses the problem by introducing the discourse on barbarism. This neglected discourse is the original and traditional European colonial vocabulary and served the justification of colonialism from ancient Greece throughout the Renaissance to the eighteenth century. Kant's explicit rejection of this discourse and its prejudices reveals his early critical stance toward colonial judgements of native peoples even before he developed his legal theory. This development of his critical position can be traced in his writings on race: although he makes racist statements in these texts, his theory of race is not meant to ground moral judgements on `races' or a racial hierarchy but to defend the unity of mankind under the given empirical reality of colonial hierarchies.
KW - anthropophagy
KW - barbarism
KW - climate theory
KW - colonialism
KW - Georg Forster
KW - legal theory
KW - native peoples
KW - natural history
KW - physical geography
KW - racism
KW - theory of race
KW - travel writings
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070563837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1369415419000189
DO - 10.1017/S1369415419000189
M3 - Review article
VL - 24
SP - 385
EP - 413
JO - Kantian Review
JF - Kantian Review
SN - 1369-4154
IS - 3
ER -