TEMPORALITIES AND TERRITORIES The Geopolitical Imaginary of German Philosophies of History MARIE LOUISE KROGH November 2020 Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University London, for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy. ABSTRACT To counter the deeply-entrenched disciplinary reluctance to consider the history of philosophy’s overlaps with the histories of empire and colonisation, this thesis draws on insights from postcolonial studies to argue that one way to reckon with these histories is through a critical analysis of the ‘geopolitical imaginary’ of philosophy and its construction out of so-called discovery literatures. While the thesis is, as a whole, specifically focused on German philosophies of history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the importance of discovery literature to the emergence of the modern concept of history is in Part One interrogated in relation to how time in the eighteenth century was spatialised, as temporal distance came to be projected onto peoples across the globe. Joseph-François Lafitau’s Moeurs des sauvages amériquains comparées aux moeurs des premiers temps (1724) is here shown to have paradigmatically articulated a regime of comparability through which a shift from a view of ‘savages’ as exemplars of ‘natural man’ to that of ‘primitive man’ could be effected. Against this background, Part Two constructs three critical models in the philosophy of history in order to articulate different inscriptions and projections of a geopolitical imaginary: one centred on Immanuel Kant’s concept of universal history with a cosmopolitan aim; one centred on G.W.F. Hegel’s critique of Kantian cosmopolitanism through a philosophy of world history; and one centred on Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt’s counter-teleological conception of civilisation and planetary humanity. Chapter Three demonstrates how, in the Kantian model, the concepts of race and that of cosmopolitanism are linked through a differentiated conception of the educability of humankind in the Kantian philosophy of history. Chapter Four foregrounds the centrality of Hegel’s philosophy of history to the very construction of the concept of Eurocentrism to give an account of their complex interrelation. Chapter Five argues that both a different philosophy of history and a different cosmopolitanism, which integrate a conception of cultural difference mediated through linguistic difference, is to be found within the writings of both i Humboldts. With these three models, the thesis aims to escape the subsumption of all philosophies of history under a unified ‘philosophy of history’, instead seeing within each a specific configuration of notions of territory and temporality, in the projection of different geopolitical imaginaries. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would not have been able to complete this thesis had it not been for the support of countless friends and colleagues. Thank you first of all to Peter Osborne, my primary supervisor, who helped me explore a vast terrain, read all my drafts with acuity, and offered countless opportunities along the way. Thank you also to Howard Caygill, my secondary supervisor, who with warmth at the right moments encouraged me to follow my intuition down narrow paths. The Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy and the philosophy department at Paris VIII have helped shape and sharpen my thinking over these past years, and I am incredibly grateful to have had the chance not only to learn from but also to discuss my work with Éric Alliez, Étienne Balibar, Antonia Birnbaum, Peter Hallward, Catherine Malabou, and Stella Sandford. To my fellow students in the department, it has been a pleasure to partake in seminars, reading groups and conferences with you all. I will forever be thankful to those of you who helped me chase two thieves through London and recover my laptop when, in my first year, both it and my un backed-up project were stolen. I cannot thank enough, those who at different points have read, critiqued, and thereby greatly improved various parts of this thesis: Franziska Aigner, Isabell Dahms, Jack Etches, Jessica Feely, Kylie Gilchrist, Austin Gross, Matt Hare, Steven Howard, Giovanni Menegalle and Lucie Kim-Chi Mercier. Your insights and encouragements have been invaluable. Without them, I would not have had the confidence to finally draw all the threads together. To those collectives and research communities in which I over the years have found co- conspirators – Ekstatisk Feminisme, Fredag Aften, PAF, The Kant on Race Reading Group, SLT Philosophy Forum, Selskab for Marxistiske Studier, Siggalycke Folkskola, The London Working Group for the Historiography of Philosophy – I thank you for times past and look forward to those to come. The inevitable solitude of working on a project of this scale has been greatly offset by the companionship and patience of friends and comrades. For the conversations and the care, I thank Hayden Appleby, Anna Baagø, Aaron Berman, David Bremner, Maria Chehonadskih, iii Bojana Cvejic, Jack Cox, Miri Davidson, Oliva Fairweather, Anna de Fillipi, Anne Louise Fink, Signe Leth Gammelgaard, Alva Gotby, Ayesha Hameed, Beata Hemer, Merete Enggard Jakobsen, Daniel Kier, Elsebeth Krogh, Noa Levin, Jonathan Leung, Hannah Lutz, Silvia Mollicchi, Daniel Nemenyi, Norbert Pape, Jordan Skinner, Mikkel Ibsen, Louis Morelle, Thea von der Maase, Maja Qvarnström, Ronah Sadan, Morteza Samanpour, Frida Sandström, David Torstensson, Nikhil Vettukattil, Ida Falk Villesen, Iben Vindbjerg, Anders Waagø, and Corin Ward. A special thanks to Kirstine Nordentoft Mose, whose fierce determination is a constant inspiration, and to Tine Tvergaard, Misja Thirslund Krenchel, and Anton Voss who, besides so much else, generously shared studios and allotment houses and provided me with calm places to work when the libraries closed. In this regard I also thank Cheryl Clark at Kingston University library, for helping me get access to numerous important and hard to track down references after the lockdown had set in. To my mother, who encouraged me to carve my own path, to my little sister whose courage and curiosity I aspire to match, to Søren who never failed to let me feel his pride on my behalf and to my family up North, thank you for supporting me on this intellectual journey. Finally, to Louis, for accompanying me through highs and lows, for lending me your hawk eyes and for reading every word with great insight, I am infinitely grateful. The research out of which this thesis is composed was generous funded by the Kingston University London Studentship Stipend, Knud Højgaards Fond and Augustinus Fonden. iv ABBREVIATIONS Full bibliographic details of the below can be found in the Bibliography appended to this thesis. Works by Immanuel Kant Note: Citations of Kant in English are for the most part taken from the Cambridge Edition of the Writings of Immanuel Kant. The only exception is Critique of the Power of Judgement, where the better translation, in my opinion, is that of Werner S. Pluhar (Hackett Publishing). Where, for the sake of clarity or argument, it has been necessary to include the German phrasing or term, a reference in brackets will indicate the appropriate Academy volume and page number of Kant’s Gesammelte Schriften, edited by the Prussian Academy of Sciences (Berlin: Georg Reimer, subsequently Walter de Gruyter, 1900–). APPV Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View CF ‘The Conflict of the Faculties’ CPJ Critique of the Power of Judgement DCHR ‘Determination of the Concept of a Human Race’ EP ‘Essays regarding the Philanthropinum’ IUH ‘Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim’ LA Lectures on Anthropology LP Lecture on Pedagogy MM The Metaphysics of Morals OCS ‘On the Common Saying: That may be correct in theory, but it is of no use in practice’ ODR ‘Of the different races of human beings’ OFBS ‘Observations on the feeling of the beautiful and the sublime’ OUTP ‘On the use of teleological principles in hilosophy’ v PG Physical Geography RJGH Review of J.G. Herder’s Ideas for the philosophy of history of humanity. Parts 1 and 2’ TPP ‘Toward Perpetual Peace’ UNHTH ‘Universal natural history and theory of the heavens or essay on the constitution and the mechanical origin of the whole universe according to Newtonian principles’ Works by Alexander von Humboldt CAS Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe PEIC Political Essay on the Island of Cuba: A Critical Edition PEKNS Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain Works by Wilhelm von Humboldt OHT ‘On the Historian’s Task’ OL On Language: The Diversity of Human Language Structure and its Influence on the Mental Development of Mankind Works by G.W.F. Hegel Note: In what follows, I cite from two editions of the Lectures on the Philosophy of World History: the first is translated by H.B. Nisbet and published with Cambridge University Press in 1984 (signalled with PWH); the second is a critical edition edited and translated by Robert F. Brown and Peter C. Hodgson with the assistance of William G. Geuss and published with Clarendon press in 2011 (signalled with PWHCE). EL The Encycopedia Logic EPR Elements of the Philosophy of Right PM Philosophy of Mind PS Phenomenology of Spirit PWH Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, trans. by H.B. Nisbet, Cambridge University Press, 1984 PWHCE Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, trans. Robert F. Brown and Peter C. Hodgson, Clarendon Press, 2011 SL The Science of Logic vi CONTENTS Abstract i Acknowledgments iii Abbreviations v Introduction 1 Secularisation and Colonisation: The Histories of The Philosophy of History 3 The Geopolitical Imaginary of Philosophies of History 9 The Territoriality of German Philosophies of History 11 Temporalities and Territories 13 Kantian, Hegelian, and Humboldtian Models 14 Chapter Outline 17 Part I Alignments of Historical Time in Geographical Space 21 Preamble: Figuring the Globe 23 One Conquests of the Historical World 27 I.