Allen, Matthew Carson (2022) Thinking the universal from the periphery : Anténor Firmin (1850-1911) and Nikolai Marr (1865-1934) on language, race, and culture. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Comparing the centre to the periphery is a well-established trope in the history of ideas as in other fields of enquiry. This thesis adopts a different approach. It examines the work of two intellectuals from parts of the world deemed ‘peripheral’ whose intellectual contribution sought to transcend their condition of peripherality by bypassing the centre: the Haitian historian, anthropologist, and public intellectual Joseph Anténor Firmin (1850-1911) and the Georgian philologist, archaeologist, and philosopher of language Nikolai Marr (1865-1934). By comparing writers from such far-removed parts of the world who inhabited the same historical period, I intend to offer an alternative to the diffusionist model of intellectual history, in which concepts are traced from their emergence in Europe to their application in the rest of the world. The comparison undertaken in this thesis follows different vectors in the communication of philosophical ideas. This is highly fitting because Firmin and Marr devoted themselves to studying evolution and historical development in a manner designed to challenge the belief that certain peoples and cultures are the driving force of history while others are destined to languish behind. Strikingly, they framed their respective projects in the spirit of universalism, which is to say they were committed to the universal action of evolutionary law common to all societies. Through the uniform application of developmental law, Firmin and Marr sought to incorporate all societies as equal parties in global development, irrespective of the racial (Firmin) and linguistic (Marr) exclusion they may have been subject to. I begin by examining the parallel and overlapping ways in which Firmin and Marr constructed their respective world-historical schemes and how they attempted to reconcile the existence of multiple developmental trajectories within a single evolutionary masterplan. I then examine how changing political circumstances in both their lives challenged and modified these commitments.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian Denominations G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Firmin, Joseph-Anténor, 1850-1911 -- History and criticism, Marr, N. I͡A. (Nikolaĭ I͡Akovlevich), 1864-1934 -- History and criticism, Evolution -- Philosophy, Universalism, Race, Culture, Anthropological linguistics
Official Date:	January 2022
Dates:	Date Event January 2022 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Fraiture, Pierre-Philippe
Sponsors:	University of Warwick. Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies ; University of Warwick
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	243 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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