In this paper, I argue that Ahmed R?za Bey reimagined Auguste Comte and Pierre Laffitte’s positivism in order to develop a critique of European imperialism and imagine a form of anti-colonial cosmopolitanism in his 'La Faillite morale de la politique occidentale en Orient' (The Moral Bankruptcy of Western Policy towards the East). Accordingly, I first introduce some of the core positivist claims from French thinkers, specifically Auguste Comte and Pierre Laffitte, focusing on how they indirectly justified colonial rule by advocating developmentalism and setting Europe as a norm. I then show, in the context of debates about Ottoman modernization, how Ahmed R?za accepted and modified key connections made between positivist “method” and European hegemony in order to foreground an alternative vision of world order and the place of the Ottoman Empire, and the Muslim world at large within it. In this sense, Ahmed R?za’s efforts could be viewed as a form of worldmaking for the Ottoman (and by extension, Muslim) presence in the civilized world. In conclusion, I argue for the ambivalence of such a critique, andinterrogate whether it is a useful tool to achieve equality amongst nations, an end Ahmed R?za claims to pursue. This form of positivism was taken up by Ahmed R?za Bey as part of the broader movement to modernize the declining Ottoman Empire in the face of European aggression. The adoption of these Western inventions marked a break with the Islamic thought and traditions that had served as the foundation of the Ottoman Empire up to that point. While Ahmed R?za advocated for the adoption of positivism’s conception of science as a force for development, he critically rejected the notion of the West as the standard of development, and instead chose to emphasize the ways Islamic civilization had contributed to world development. At the same time, he forcefully criticized European colonialism as regressive rather than as a force of progress and development. Instead of fulfilling the promise of positivism, the West had betrayed it. By appropriating the logic of positivism to critique European imperialism and call for a new world order based on the equality of peoples, Ahmed R?za was engaging in a project of worldmaking.