On human diversity : nationalism, racism, and exoticism in French thought
"How can we think about peoples and cultures unlike our own? In the early modern period, the fact of human diversity presented Europeans with little cause for anxiety: they simply assumed the superiority of the West. During the eighteenth century this view was gradually abandoned, as thinkers argued that other peoples possessed reason and sensibility, and thus deserved the same respect that Westerners accorded themselves. Since that time, however, Enlightenment belief in the universals of human nature has fallen into disrepute; critics allege that such notions have had disastrous consequences in the twentieth century, ranging from prejudice to persecution and outright genocide."
Print Book, English, 1994, ©1993
1st Harvard University Press pbk. ed View all formats and editions
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1994, ©1993
History
xvi, 424 pages ; 24 cm
9780674634398, 9780674634381, 067463439X, 0674634381
32777714
Translation of: Nous et les autres
Translation of: Nous et les autres : La réflexion Française sur la diversité humaine