Abstract

Historically, colonial domination has involved subjecting innocent populations to atrocities such as murder, torture, and exploitation. But pointing at these wrongs is not enough to explain the distinctive way in which colonialism is wrong. After all, murder, torture and exploitation are wrong whether or not they occur in the context of colonial occupation. If all we can do to explain the nature of colonialism is point at the fact that it typically involves the perpetration of these crimes, we cannot vindicate the thought that there is something distinctively wrong with it. And yet, intuitively the victims of colonial domination have suffered a distinctive wrong over and above those associated with these crimes. How should we understand the nature of this wrong? I answer this question by arguing that colonial domination undermines the capacity of political communities to exercise their self-determining agency in a particular way.

中文翻译：

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为什么殖民主义错了

摘要

从历史上看，殖民统治涉及使无辜人口遭受谋杀，酷刑和剥削等暴行。但是指出这些错误不足以解释殖民主义错误的独特方式。毕竟，谋杀，酷刑和剥削是错误的，无论它们是否发生在殖民占领的背景下。如果我们能做的一切解释殖民主义本质的事实是殖民主义通常牵涉到这些罪行，那么我们就不能证明存在某些明显的错误。然而，从直觉上讲，殖民统治的受害者除了与这些罪行有关的受害者外，还遭受了明显的错误。我们应该如何理解这种错误的性质？我通过争辩说，殖民统治削弱了政治社区以特定方式行使其自决权的能力。