Why is Kwame Anthony Appiah’s proposal to dismiss the concept of “The West” premature?

Abstract

This paper is a response to Kwame A. Appiah’s article “There is no such thing as western civilisation” published in The Guardian of 9 November 2016. Appiah’s proposal to dismiss the term ‘western civilisation’ seems premature since it is strongly established in the humanities and social sciences. Discussing selected models representing systems of civilisations (Spengler, Koneczny, Toynbee, Huntington) as well as Fernand Braudel’s concept of longue durée history, this paper demonstrates the importance of the term ‘western civilisation’ in academic and political discourses. Moreover, referring to post-colonial studies, it is impossible to avoid the term because without it, any discussion on the colonial and post-colonial reality would be devoid of substance.