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Ficha a Race, Empire and the idea of human development de Thomas McCarthy “Developmental thinking has proved to be rather adaptable and thus quite serviceable in rationalizing the various truncations of universal Rights and obligations thatt colonial domination and explotation required. Moreover, the putatively scientific status of theories of development has lent a naturalistic aura to socially constructed hierarchies, thus deflecting moral assessment and political critique. In this and other ways, the refraction of liberal ideals in the medium of developmental theory has made in rhetorically possible to combine universalism in the principle with Eurocentrism in practice”. Pp 169 from the anthropological-historical standpoint of reflective judgment, he (Kant) argued that the only way to make sense of human history was in terms of the gradual diffusion of an asymmetrical development centered in Europe. P 169 “The combination of developmentalism with was deployed by progressive liberalism as a justification for empire from the beginning, and not by chance; for the general accounts of history and society that served this purpose were always interpretations from a practically engaged point of view. They reflected the nature of Europeans` contacts with non- European societies from the voyages of “discovery” onwards. And given a hermeneutic standpoint shaped by their growing superiority of force and by their growing confidence in the superiority of force and by their growing confidence in the superiority of their culture and institutions, that is not surprising. The imbalances of power of various sorts formed a context in which the autonomy and equal respect required in theory could not be effectively demanded in practice. As colonial powers usually could not be forced to negotiate differences on equal terms, they were disposed to interpret them in hierarchical and temporal terms. Other societies and cultures became earlier “stages” of development”, p179
