The Doctrine of Discovery - Part 4

The Doctrine of Discovery as a Manifestation of Critical Theory

This fourth article in my series on the Doctrine of Discovery changes the focus and considers the Doctrine of Discovery as a manifestation of critical theory. It looks at the development of critical theory and post-modernism and the way that it is applied in the areas of racism, critical race theory and colonization and decolonization. The essential argument is that the Doctrine of Discovery has no objectively provable existence but is a critical theory construct.

The Doctrine of Discovery as a Manifestation of Critical Theory

If, as I suggest, there is no historical evidence for a coherent “Doctrine of Discovery” at international law, how has the term developed and become a part of a number of the narratives about the history of colonialism. In this section I shall develop the theme that in fact the “Doctrine” is in fact a manifestation of critical theory.

In the abstract to their 2023 article[1], Miller and Hobbs state:

“In the 1823 decision of Johnson v. M’Intosh, Chief Justice John Marshall formulated the international law of colonialism. Known as the Doctrine of Discovery, Marshall’s opinion drew on the practices of European nations during the Age of Exploration to legitimize European acquisition of territory owned and occupied by Indigenous peoples. Two centuries later, Johnson—and the international law of colonialism—remains good law throughout the world. In this Article we examine how the Doctrine of Discovery was adapted and applied in Australia and the United States. As Indigenous peoples continue to press for a re-examination of their relationships with governments, we also consider whether and how the international law of colonialism has been mitigated or unraveled in these two countries. While we find that the Doctrine lingers, close examination provides several important lessons for all Indigenous nations and governments burdened by colonization.”

In Part 2 I examined the validity of Johnson v M’Intosh but in the abstract Miller and Hobbs identify the issues of colonialism and the way in which the so-called Doctrine acted as a means of repression of indigenous people.

The approach that has been adopted is a variation or manifestation of Critical Theory involving Critical Race Theory coupled with Critical Theory approaches to colonialism and decolonization.

In this section I shall discuss Critical Theory and its elements and in the next section explain how it is that the Critical Theory outcomes are historical fallacies that sadly seem to have become accept by many mainstream organizations, the Catholic Church and the Human Rights Commission among them.

The Starting Point

Critical theory should be understood and critiqued for what it is. Critical theory is grounded in Marxism and postmodernism that seeks fundamental and radical structural change of society through activism.

The Marxist theory of history is called dialectical or historical materialism. Marx’s central claim is that class struggle is the driving force of history. Under capitalism, this struggle occurs between the oppressors and the oppressed. Thus there is an imbalance which in current terms is represented as empowerment and disempowerment.

Marx looked at capitalism as an example. The capitalist class (the empowered) owns the means of production and rules over the proletariat (the disempowered). Marx believed capitalism's long-term function was to create the conditions necessary for the awakening of the proletariat class consciousness who then organise into a collective and overthrow the bourgeoisie in a revolution which leads to socialism.

This “awakening” or awareness has given rise to the quality of being “awoken” which has become the basis of the term “woke” – being awoken to important societal facts and issues – especially those of social justice. I think the better term is “awakened” but in this respect, sadly, idiom prevails over good grammar

Thus a critical aspect of Marxism is the awakening of a collective class consciousness in the proletariat -making them aware of the true nature of their oppression. It is only at this stage that they can form into a collective class, overthrowing the ruling capitalist class in a social revolution and conquer political power for themselves.

By the 1950s, Marxism was in crisis. Marx’s predictions about history’s progression had failed to materialise and Capitalist and Liberal Democratic societies were seeing rapid improvements in the average quality of life. The world was learning of the horrors of communism and the Soviet Union, Maoist China, Vietnam, Cambodia and South America. The abolition of private property, central economic planning and the forced collectivisation of industry and agriculture had catastrophic consequences.

Postmodernism

In the 1960s, a new political, cultural and intellectual movement called postmodernism emerged in a period of significant social change. It is difficult to provide an overarching definition for postmodernism due to the sheer breadth of its applicability, including in music, art and architecture.

It is characterised by a deep suspicion, scepticism and distrust of broad historical concepts, universal values and of any attempts to ground knowledge and truth on absolute foundations.

It is particularly antithetical to the principles of the Enlightenment. Because there can be no universal truths any claims to truth cannot be valid. Or alternatively, all claims to truth are equally valid. Therefore there is no one truth.

Postmodernism is highly critical of the Enlightenment, which was predominantly a European intellectual movement associated with the principles of justice, rationality, individualism and the Scientific method as a means of determining objective and universal truth. Enlightenment thinkers rejected divine revelation and religious belief as the source of moral knowledge.

Postmodernists shared Marxism’s views on the structural power. But instead of economic analysis, they focused on differences in power between groups along cultural and identity lines. Postmodernism was a reaction to the conditions of modernity such as objectivity, individualism, liberal capitalism, and the principles of the Enlightenment which the postmodernist philosophers believed had led to a death of authenticity in Western societies.

Postmodernism is suspicious of any systems or processes that push for unity, homogeneity and all-encompassing conditions. Instead, they emphasise the fluid and the unstable, the diffuse and the fragmented, and the local and the micro, by studying the marginal, the different and the other.

For postmodernists, everything is about power. It determines how society is structured and how we think and speak. These ideas can be traced to critical theory, which emerged in Western Europe in the early 20th century.

Postmodernism and Critical Theory

Critical theories identify structural forms of oppression. For this reason, critical theories are popular with left wing academics and are common in fields of study like disability and fat studies, feminism and gender studies, post-colonial studies, sexual diversity studies, critical legal theory, and critical race theory.

A critical theory has three criteria.

· It must be explanatory in that it explains problems with the current social reality - practical in that and identifies who should change the social reality and how and normative.

· It outlines the standards for criticism and the achievable goals for transforming the problems through praxis.

· The third feature is the most crucial and embodies Marxist proposition that philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways. The point is to change it. In philosophy, praxis means implementing a theory in the world to achieve an aim.

The core function of critical theory is to awaken a critical consciousness in members of an oppressed group. This is comes directly from the Marxist concept of awakening class consciousness as the precursor to a revolution.