نقد التفسير العرقي للحضارة

Civilization and progress have always obsessed peoples, rulers and thinkers either in Mesopotamia and Egypt, passing by classical civilization and Islamic one up to contemporary western modern civilization.

Several interpretations appeared through which factors of nations’ progress has been revealed in different regions in the world. Some say that there are environmental reasons for progress, others attribute it to divine care, others think that it is due to human activities who benefit from physical and psychological aptitudes making him able to overcome obstacles, and leading him to luxury. Ethnic theory is concerned with this trend, it says that progress is monopolized by a certain special kind of Man, but this was disapproved since its appearance in the nineteenth century.

This paper will review the main foundations of this theory and set its thought origin as well as emphasizing the main criticism it met in contemporary world.

Keywords: Civilization; Progress; Man; Ethnicity; Nation.