The End of Conceit. Western Rationality after Postcolonialism

摘要

Patrick Chabal's The End of Conceit makes a number of important claims with regards to social developments in the post-Cold War era. The first of these claims concerns the fact that the post-bipolar world increasingly amounts to a 'cultural melting pot' that has brought 'West and non-West into close proximity everywhere in the world' (12). Indeed, Chabal argues that - particularly as a result of increased flows of migration - 'the present West' is now 'made up of both West and non-West' (162, emphasis added). This complex reality, he contends, has begun to challenge Western notions of modernity, progress and development and is increasingly leading to a 'loss of nerve' (14) on its part. Rather than ushering in Fukuyama's (in)famous 'end of history' (1993), therefore, the end of the Cold War is better understood as resulting in uncertainty and disorientation within the West.