The uniqueness of Western civilization / / Ricardo Duchesne.

• Superior document: Studies in critical social sciences, v. 28
• VerfasserIn: Duchesne, Ricardo,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden : : Brill,, 2012.; ©2011.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in critical social sciences ; v. 28.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xi, 527 pages)

This extensively researched book argues that the development of a libertarian culture was an indispensable component of the rise of the West. The roots of the West's superior intellectual and artistic creativity should be traced back to the aristocratic warlike culture of Indo-European speakers. Among the many fascinating topics discussed are: the ascendancy of multicultural historians and the degradation of European history; China's ecological endowments and imperial windfalls; military revolutions in Europe 1300-1800; the science and chivalry of Henry the Navigator; Judaism and its contribution to Western rationalism; the cultural richness of Max Weber versus the intellectual poverty of Pomeranz, Wong, Goldstone, Goody, and A.G. Frank; change without progress in the East; Hegel's Phenomenology of the [Western] Spirit; Nietzsche and the education of the Homeric Greeks; Kojeve's master-slave dialectic and the Western state of nature; Christian virtues and German aristocratic expansionism.

Table of Contents

1. The Fall of Western Civilization and the Rise of Multicultural World History -- Early World Historians and the Idea of Progress -- Termination of the Western Civilization Course -- World History Texts from the 1920s to the 1940s -- World History Texts in the 1960s -- Rise of Dependency Theory -- Wallerstein's World-System and Critical Theory -- Franz Boas's Relativism and Marvin Harris's Cultural Materialism -- The Conversion of William McNeill: From "Rise of the West" to "Interactive Webs" -- Cultural Relativism, Scientific Materialism, and Humanism Combined -- The Exclusion of Sociobiology -- Kant's "unsocial sociability" -- Progress and the State of Nature -- Dynamic Man versus Reactive Man -- The Ascendancy of Multicultural World Historians -- Patrick Manning: It Takes an African Village to Write World History -- Disparaging the West: Felipe Fernandez-Armesto --

2. Eurocentrism over Sinocentrism -- The Basic Empirical Claims of the Revisionists -- The Two Arguments of Re-Orient -- One Asian World System? -- The Role of Colonial Profits -- Trade, Power, and Liberty: the Secret of British Imperial Success -- Chinas "high-level equilibrium trap" -- The "Geographical Limits" of Chinas Post-1400 Extensive Growth -- Was Eighteenth Century Europe following a Malthusian path? -- Was traditional China a Low Fertility Regime? -- Conclusion --

3. Whence the Industrial Divergence? -- The Basic Propositions of Pomeranz's "Great Divergence" -- Malthus was Born too Late in a World too New -- End of the Old Malthusian Regime in England -- Standard-of-Living Debate -- New World Resources versus European Resources -- Was Cheap Coal Sufficient or Necessary? -- Dynamic Rather than Static Comparisons -- China's Ecological Endowments and Imperial Windfalls --

4. The Continuous Creativity of Europe -- Hobson and the Eastern Origins of the West -- Eurocentric Historians -- Imitation, Innovation, and Invention -- Revolution in Time -- The Printing Revolution -- The Science and Chivalry of Henry the Navigator -- Columbus and the Cartographic Revolution -- The Industrial Enlightenment -- Goldstone's "Happy Chance" versus Jacob's Scientific Ethos -- Contingency versus Long Term Patterns -- Europe's Solo Act: A Mercantile-Militaristic State? -- Military Revolutions in Europe 1300-1800 -- The Inter-State System -- Greek Hoplites and the "Western Way of War" -- Mercantilism and the Birth of Political Economy -- Liberty and the States System --

5. The `Rise' of Western Reason and Freedom -- The West is more than Wealth and Power -- The Cultural Poverty of the Revisionists -- The Cultural Richness of Max Weber -- Judaism and its Contribution to Western Rationalism -- Schluchter on the Genetic Developmental Dynamic of the West -- Habermas and the Rationalization of Substantive Values -- The Liberal Democratic Ideals of the West and its Historiography --

6. The Restlessness of the Western Spirit from a Hegelian Perspective -- Change without Progress in the East -- Measuring Human Accomplishments -- The Historiography of Europe's Revolutions -- Phenomenology of the Western Spirit -- Hegel and the Geographical Basis of the "infinite thirst" of the West -- Hegel and the Beginnings of Western Reason -- Hegel on the "desire" of World-Historical Individuals -- The Master-Slave Dialectic and its Historical Reference -- Hegel's Account of the State of Nature -- Kojeve and the fight to the death for pure prestige -- Spengler and the Faustian Soul of the West -- McNeill and the Indo-European Roots of the West's Warrior Ethos --

7. The Aristocratic Egalitarianism of Indo-Europeans and the Primordial Origins of Western Civilization -- The Founding Fathers of the West: Democratic Citizens or Aristocratic Warriors? -- Indo-Europeans as the "Other" of World History -- The Distinctive Indo-Europeanization of the West -- Chariots, Mycenaeans, and Aristocratic Berserkers -- Aristocratic and Martial Traits -- The Impact of Indo-Europeans on the Civilizations of the East -- "Big Man" Feasting and the Origins of Inequality -- Prestige-Seeking Chiefs -- From Simple to Paramount Chiefdoms -- "Eastern" Group-Oriented and "Western" Individualizing Chiefdoms -- City-States: Sumerian versus Greek -- The Autocratic Character of Mesopotamia and Egypt -- The Epic of Gilgamesh is not a Heroic Tragedy --

8. The Emergence of the Self from the Western `State of Nature' and the Conciliation of Christianity and Aristocratic Liberty -- Fukuyama and the Megalothymia of the "first men" of the West -- Why Hegel's "Master" Must be Aristocratic -- Kojeve and the "first appearance" of Self-Consciousness -- Charles Taylor and Plato's Self-Mastery -- The Beginnings of Genuine Personalities in History -- Nietzsche's "Homer on Competition" -- Arete and the Education of the Greeks -- The Roman Aristocratic Link -- The Germanic Barbarian Rejuvenation of the West -- Feudalism: an Aristocratic Type of Rule -- Charlemagne's Continuation of the Western Tradition -- Christian Virtues and Aristocratic Expansionism -- Aristocratic liberty and the Rise of Representative Institutions.