Eurocentric Roots of the Clash of Civilizations: A Perspective from History of Science

Arun Bala

Chapter Chapter One in The Challenge of Eurocentrism: Global Perspectives, Policy, and Prospects, 2009, pp 9-23 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In his highly controversial study The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order the political scientist Samuel Huntington argues that the end of the cold war, and the ideological conflicts which defined it, portends the return of the more ancient conflicts between the world’s different civilizations that pre-dated the ideological wars of the twentieth century. He sees civilizations as constituting the broadest cultural grouping of people and the widest cultural identities they assume short of that which separates humanity from other species (Huntington 1996, p. 43). In attempting to characterize what divides civilizations from each other Huntington argues that the most important objective element is religion. According to him the crucial distinction among humans is not their biological characteristics of physiology, head shape or color, but their cultural values and beliefs, and institutions and social structures, for “people who share ethnicity and language but differ in religion may slaughter each other” (p. 42). Although Huntington admits that civilizations have no clear-cut boundaries he maintains that we can at least identify eight major civilizations in the world today—African, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Islamic, Latin American, Orthodox, and Western.

Keywords: Modern Science; Chinese Science; Universal Jurisdiction; Islamic Civilization; Ideological Conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-62089-6_2

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230620896_2

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