Tensions of Modernity
eBook - ePub

Tensions of Modernity

Las Casas and His Legacy in the French Enlightenment

  1. 212 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Tensions of Modernity

Las Casas and His Legacy in the French Enlightenment

About this book

Politics today is marked by tension between claims of universal human rights and diversity. From the war on terror to immigration, one of the major challenges facing liberalism is to understand the scope of equality in a world in which certain peoples are perceived to reject and/or violently resist democratic principles.

This book revisits Europe's initial encounter with the Native Americans of the New World to shed light on how the West's initial defense of so-called 'barbarians' has influenced the way we think about diversity today, and elucidate the arguments of exclusion that unconsciously permeate the moral world we live in. In doing so, Daniel R. Brunstetter traces Bartolomé de Las Casas's oft heralded defense of the Native Americans in the sixteenth century through the French Enlightenment. While this defense has been rightly lauded as an early example of human rights discourse, tracing Las Casas's arguments into the eighteenth century shows how his view of equality enabled arguments legitimizing the annihilation by 'just' war of those perceived to be 'barbarians'.

This philosophical narrative can be useful when thinking about concepts such as just war, multiculturalism, and immigration, or any area in which politics confronts radical difference.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
No, books cannot be downloaded as external files, such as PDFs, for use outside of Perlego. However, you can download books within the Perlego app for offline reading on mobile or tablet. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Tensions of Modernity by Daniel R. Brunstetter in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Latin American & Caribbean Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Halftitle
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. 1 Modernity and the Other: A Story of Inequality
  9. 2 Locating the Other in the Political Debates of Early Modernity
  10. 3 Thinking and Rethinking the Equality of the Other: Vitoria, SepĂșlveda, and the True Barbarians
  11. 4 Las Casas and the Other: The Tension between Equality and Cultural Othercide
  12. 5 From the Civilizing Mission to Irreconcilable Alterity: The Changing Perception of the Indians in the French Enlightenment
  13. 6 The Other Side of Modernity: Legitimizing the Transition from Cultural Othercide to Physical Othercide
  14. 7 Conclusion: Looking to the Future—Quo Vadis?
  15. Notes
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index