Herder : aesthetics against imperialism /

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Noyes, John K. (John Kenneth), 1955- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, [2015]
Series:German and European studies ; 21.
Subjects:
Description
Summary: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.
Physical Description:402 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9781442650381
1442650389