The Normativity of Globalization

Abstract

Since Hegel, it has been increasingly evident that modern times have witnessed the weaving of the different strands of history into a unified globalization, producing a unitary world history for the first time. This globalized process does not just set all cultural developments in a reciprocal influence, from which no corner of the globe can long escape. Besides removing all barriers that allowed New and Old World civilizations to rise and fall in parallel isolation, the modern era has unshackled a form of community that is inherently global as none before. This form of community is modern civilization, characterized by a normative drive to make itself world encompassing, as well as by a social and political dynamic that makes that imperative a realizable enterprise.