Herder : : Aesthetics against Imperialism / / John K. Noyes.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press Pilot 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Noyes, John K.,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2017]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: German and European Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (416 p.)

Among his generation of intellectuals, the eighteenth-century German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder is recognized both for his innovative philosophy of language and history and for his passionate criticism of racism, colonialism, and imperialism. A student of Immanuel Kant, Herder challenged the idea that anyone - even the philosophers of the Enlightenment - could have a monopoly on truth.In Herder: Aesthetics against Imperialism, John K. Noyes plumbs the connections between Herder's anti-imperialism, often acknowledged but rarely explored in depth, and his epistemological investigations. Noyes argues that Herder's anti-rationalist epistemology, his rejection of universal conceptions of truth, knowledge, and justice, constitutes the first attempt to establish not just a moral but an epistemological foundation for anti-imperialism. Engaging with the work of postcolonial theorists such Dipesh Chakrabarty and Gayatri Spivak, this book is a valuable reassessment of Enlightenment anti-imperialism that demonstrates Herder's continuing relevance to postcolonial studies today.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Postcolonial Theory and Herder's Anti-Imperialism -- 1. From Epistemology to Aesthetics -- 2. From Organic Life to the Politics of Interpretation -- 3. From Human Restlessness to the Politics of Difference -- 4. From the Location of Language to the Multiplicity of Reason -- 5. From Human Diversity to the Politics of Natural Development -- 6. The Aesthetics of Revolution and the Critique of Imperialism -- Conclusion: Herder, Postcolonialism, and the Antinomy of Universal Reason -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index