THE POLITICS OF MULTICULTURALISM AS REPARATION FOR WESTERN COLONIALISM: A CRITICAL APPROACH ON MODERNITY’S NORMATIVE PARADIGM

Abstract

This study starts from a criticism against the naturalization and depo­liticization of the normative paradigm of modernity. Such criticism was made by some contemporary philosophical-sociological theories that associated mo­dernity directly with universalism and conceived it as the final stage of human evolution (in terms of epistemological-moral consciousness, culture and material organization), as opposed to traditionalism. The article argues that modernity is not a universalistic epistemological-moral paradigm or a material and societal organization from which multiculturalism can be embraced, promoted and gui­ded, particularly in the international context. Consequently, I reject the direct association, proposed by such philosophical-sociological theories, of universa­lism, cosmopolitanism and globalization with the epistemological, cultural and economic modernization. In other words, universalism does not mean moderni­zation, as it does not justify the totalizing pursuit of modernity as a paradigm and a material-institutional form of life for all contexts and as a condition for their stability. I therefore propose a reformulation of the paradigm of modernity with the concept of Western colonialism reparation, which must start from the recognition of the historical-sociological blindness concerning the intrinsic link between the normativity of modernity and the Realpolitik of modern colonialism. Such blindness implies the statement that modernity is inherently self-reflexive, justifying it as the basic paradigm for the context of modernity as well as for the sphere of international politics. This would reinforce its permanence as a universalistic paradigm and cosmopolitan ethical-political project. Based on that separation, modernity can always function as the starting point and as the point of arrival to universalism, transforming modernization into universalism itself.