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 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."--

Introduction: Postcolonial Theory and Herder's Anti-Imperialism -- Chapter 1: From Epistemology to Aesthetics -- Chapter 2: From Organic Life to the Politics of Interpretation -- Chapter 3: From Human Restlessness to the Politics of Difference -- Chapter 4: From the Location of Language to the Multiplicity of Reason -- Chapter 5: From Human Diversity to the Politics of Natural Development -- Chapter 6: The Aesthetics of Revolution and the Critique of Imperialism -- Conclusion: Herder, Postcolonialism, and the Antinomy of Universal Reason.