Abstract

Hegel’s account of China, based mainly on the reports of European travelers and missionaries, is hardly trustworthy. Attention to it, however, can illuminate Hegel’s own critical practices. Displacing his claims about China onto the imaginary nation of “Baffinland,” I argue that Hegel’s critical standards derive from the basic nature of his thought, which requires that a good society be one that not merely tolerates but encourages the full development of human diversity. As an example of how this might work, I turn to the Rwandan practice of imihigo, in which an individual publicly spells out the contributions that only he or she can make to the community.