Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The premature announcement of “the end of history” and the contemporary discourse on globalization share an inherent assumption: a sense of triumphalism rooted in the singularity of the current moment. Popular writers and academicians ranging from Thomas Friedman to Francis Fukuyama have proclaimed the uniqueness of the present stage of human achievement - and the inevitable character of its future direction. While rooted in broader conceptions of progress and purpose central to Western thinking – from the sacred vision of the Judeo-Christian worldview through the secular speculations of Marx – rather than looking to a distant future for fulfillment these current iterations proclaim our era as a threshold of imminent possibility unparalleled by any epoch of the past. Moreover, this construction of reality is not without its practical advantages – indeed the “end of history” can be readily deployed as a “history of ends.” Thomas Kuhn’s study is now half a century old but it has lost none of its relevance. While his work focuses on the dynamic of how scientific knowledge is advanced it also provides a wider framework for understanding those episodic bursts of creativity that have advanced our material and technological horizons in the past and, most importantly, brought us closer together as a species. Indeed, Kuhn’s masterwork forcefully reminds us that today’s “age of globalization” is the latest – but certainly has not been the only – gateway leading to a radical transformation of the human condition.