The West – The History of an Idea

This searching study asks how ‘the West’ came to be used as a collective self-designation signalling political and cultural commonality. It turns out that it was not a classical concept except in retrospect – think of Russell’s History of Western Philosophy – but rather it emerged as of the 1820s and was decisively promoted in the 1840s by the French social philosopher Auguste Comte as a way of overcoming the limitations of the corresponding use of Europe – also including the United States. The treatment is comprehensive, with many fascinating facets and aspects, drawing on thinkers both well-known and more obscure. In our own time, we should not forget the equally important distinction between North and South. Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee made important contributions in the 20th century, and more recently the term has been reworked to consider Ukraine. More importantly, this contested situation and that in Gaza raise the whole question of the bankruptcy of Western moral values subsumed under geopolitical manoeuvres on the grand chessboard. Moralising as the good guys versus the bad guys is all too shallow, especially when truth and freedom are sacrificed in the process and diplomacy is characterised as appeasement.