Barbarism and the State of Nature
Colonialism, justification and critique of the State
Distributed for University of Wales Press
Barbarism and the State of Nature
Colonialism, justification and critique of the State
Reveals how discourse on barbarism in political thought is still rooted in colonialism.
Why does describing the absence of the state as a “state of nature” represent a continuation of colonial patterns of perception? To what extent does the criticism of war and genocide as a “relapse into barbarism" reveal an unresolved legacy of colonialism?
Barbarism and the State of Nature demonstrates the central significance that the denigration of non-state societies had for the justification of the state in Europe. The book calls for the translation of the accusation of barbarism into the language of international criminal law and the recognition of colonialism as a crime against humanity.
256 pages | 11 halftones | 5.43 x 8.5 | © 2027
Philosophy: General Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Political Science: Comparative Politics
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction: A society without barbarism?
Chapter 1Barbarism in European antiquity
Chapter 2 Barbarism and the conquest of America
Chapter 3From barbarism to the state of nature in Hobbes
Chapter 4The critique of barbarism in the French Enlightenment
Chapter 5 The notion of barbarism in Kant’s critique of the State
Chapter 6Barbarism in the discussion between Veblen and Adorno
Chapter 7‘Relapse into barbarism’ and the World Wars
Chapter 8Crimes against humanity: Barbarism in International Law
Conclusion: Beyond Barbarism
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements