Beyond the West

The period of Western superiority is over

We have got used to Europe and North America dominating the world. But now other major powers are making political and economic claims, and questioning the supposedly universally valid “Western” interpretation of the world. Progress, secularisation, liberalism: why should these principles that were developed in one corner of the world apply to the entire globe?

Stefan Weidner is a supporter of enlightenment. And that is precisely why he advocates taking seriously world views that have arisen in Arab countries, Africa or China. There too, notions of human dignity, for example, have been developed and ideas of how it could be enshrined by law. We should not believe that sooner or later the whole world will adopt Western ideas. Civilisation needs a cosmopolitan approach that overcomes the notion of cultural superiority.