The Problems Of Ethnocentrism: The Problem Of Ethnocentrism

The problems of ethnocentrism tend to manifest themselves in the philosophy of history, when philosophers attempt to interpret empirical history in teleological terms. Ethnocentrism arises whenever the researcher attempts to universalize the Western subject-position. In sociological terms that have been widely popularized since Sumner, ethnocentrism involves one first identifying with an in-group, with whom one shares certain observable characteristics (culture, language, physical features, or customs, for example).[1] The belief in shared characteristics leads to an assertion of identity, and this belief in turn influences attitudes. Our attitude toward the in-group is one of favouritism, whereas our attitude toward the out-group is one of

What are the chief accusations against ethnocentrism? Ethnocentrism, its critics claim, imposes a Western conceptual schema on non-Western forms of life, whose concepts often fail to fit the non-Western realities they purport to describe. This problem, however, is not peculiar to ethnocentrism, but is analogous to the problem of conceivability in the philosophy of the mind and the problem of obstacle-concepts in the philosophy of science in general. As the latter appears to be slightly less controversial, I will address it first.