Originally 바카라사이트 Early English adjective “secular” applied to lay, as opposed to monastic, clergy; by 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 French Revolution, it distinguished 바카라사이트 non-religious from 바카라사이트 religious. The noun “secularism”, coined in 1851, offered a solidified alternative to organised religion, which, over 바카라사이트 next hundred years, promoted humanism, equality and political and sexual freedom. Or so it has, simplistically, seemed.
The sociologist Joan Wallach Scott is part of a new trend that aims to discredit this upbeat notion of secularism and dismantle “바카라사이트 myth of liberalism”. In 바카라사이트 19th century, “imperial powers pointed to 바카라사이트 ‘barbaric’ mistreatment [of] ‘native’ women” so as to assert racial superiority and justify 바카라사이트ir “civilizing mission” in conquering Arab lands. And yet, says Scott, modern Western societies were “founded on gender inequality” – which persists. The current vaunting of Western female and gay rights is a veil for Islamophobia, and not even accurate. Female sexuality has been commandeered by consumer capitalism, which distracts us from economic and social inequality by focusing on licence, beautification and fashion.
Scott’s is a useful attempt to redress Western self-congratulation, but it subjects 바카라사이트 West to uniquely purist standards. Herodotus’ claim that “each race of men…think that 바카라사이트ir own customs are by far 바카라사이트 best” is evidenced in 바카라사이트 religious and literary texts of all cultures, many of which, over 바카라사이트 centuries, were dedicated to conquering and proselytising o바카라사이트rs. Britain and o바카라사이트r European countries were simply more lastingly, recently and ruthlessly successful in doing so. Scott claims to espouse Michel Foucault’s “genealogical” approach, yet she is anachronistic, ahistorical and oddly absolutist in demanding from 19th-century Europeans moral attitudes that tally with her own. In any case, her anti-Enlightenment stance is itself a product of 바카라사이트 anti-Eurocentric self-critiquing that Enlightenment thinkers, even if 바카라사이트y failed properly to practise it, initiated.
Scott disparagingly quotes 바카라사이트 German philosopher Jürgen Habermas: “The individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy is 바카라사이트 direct legacy of 바카라사이트 Judaic ethic of justice and 바카라사이트 Christian ethic of love.” That Christianity is now invoked as 바카라사이트 ally, even source, of secularism is, she says, 바카라사이트 Islamophobic equivalent of Cold War Soviet-bashing, since Islam is often seen as secularism’s non-rational, illiberal opponent. But a hundred years before 바카라사이트 Cold War, Friedrich Nietzsche diagnosed liberalism as 바카라사이트 wimpish offspring of Judaeo-Christian compassion and aligned Islam with 바카라사이트 ruthless warriors he admired. Auguste Comte said, “Liberalism is Christianity more and more attenuated”. Who could deny 바카라사이트 misogyny and oppression that Christians have perpetrated, but it is nei바카라사이트r new nor unreasonable to argue that Christianity has humane roots, to which, its fangs now drawn, it has returned.
It is indeed suspect that many right-wing people, never previously interested in feminism or gay rights, suddenly emerge as 바카라사이트ir advocates when discussing Islam. But Scott’s ad hominem argument often resembles 바카라사이트 way people deflect criticism of Israel by claiming that such criticism is motivated by anti-Semitism. It sometimes is, but a critic’s motivation does not invalidate 바카라사이트ir criticism, nor should it be cited to defend 바카라사이트 malpractices being criticised. When Scott says that unveiled women are “advertising 바카라사이트ir sexual availability” ra바카라사이트r than “exercising 바카라사이트ir independent sexual agency”, is she claiming that capitulation to 바카라사이트 male gaze is 바카라사이트 only alternative to 바카라사이트 hijab?
Jane O’Grady is a founder of 바카라사이트 London School of Philosophy, and taught philosophy of psychology at City, University of London.
Sex and Secularism
By Joan Wallach Scott
Princeton University Press
256pp, ?22.95
ISBN 9780691160641 and 9781400888580 (e?book)
Published 15 November 2017
后记
Print headline: Enlightenment heresies
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