[ExI] Eurocentric Bias in Human Achievement

[Stefano Vaj]

On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 5:18 PM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> Harvey wrote
> Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 1:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Literary Criticism Technique
>
>> [Murray] only looked at European histories and concluded
>> that Europeans were the most important figures in history.
>
> No, he did not make such a claim! He lists dozens of Chinese
> and Japanese contributors to human achievement alone. And
> breakthroughs from many cultures, not to mention amazingly
> long lists of Indian or Arabic breakthroughs. The Europeans
> were simply by far the most *numerous* contributors.

There is also a subtler point.

While it is part of the (European) historiographic tradition to take
into account to some extent external narratives, it is delusional -
and ultimately the fruit of a parochial view of quite specific
European ideological traditions - to assume that it makes sense to
strive for some kind of "disembodied", "objective"  perspective.

If one is looking for a China-centric account of human history,
anthropology and destiny he or she has better look for it in China.

SV