Colonialism and Coloniality: A theoretical Analysis of biological Evolutionism to social Evolutionism
by Gianpasquale Preite
pp. 188-207 Issue 14 ( 7,2) – July-December 2020 ISSN (online): 2539/2239 ISSN (print): 2389-8232 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14718/SoftPower.2020.7.2.9
Abstract
The article deals with the connection among evolutionism, colonialism and the emergence of the social sciences. The main idea is that evolutionism, intended as a perspective on reality, makes nature a process of constant adjustment to the environment, thus producing a continuing improvement. Nineteenth century social sciences uses the natural model of evolution as a way to legitimize Western domination over other cultures, starting from the idea that Western countries had reached a higher stage in the evolution process. The paper proposes that, whereas domination needed to refer to nature as a legitimizing instrument, globalization has made the external reference to biological evolution ever less relevant, as economic mechanism of exploitation are now intended as a sort of second nature, justifying per se new forms of colonianilsm.