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An unflinching look at the darker side of Western thought, arguing for an acceptance of responsibility as opposed to an apportionment of blame.
Calls for a decolonization of thought and the sciences have become increasingly urgent in recent years and have now reached European universities. Decolonizing Philosophy attempts to clarify why philosophy must also undergo a process of decolonization and what such a process means for research and teaching in philosophy. A central point in this process is the reappraisal of the long-denied entanglements of European philosophy in European expansion and colonialism. Within this context, the book addresses questions about the emergence of scientifically based race theories in philosophy and the Eurocentric historical constructions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It also presents research approaches for overcoming a Eurocentric philosophy and raises the question of how ethical and epistemic responsibility can be assumed in the process of decolonizing thought.
Rolf Elberfeld is Professor of Cultural Philosophy at the University of Hildesheim. Steven Corcoran is the Secretary of Parrhesia, School of Philosophy, Berlin. He is the editor of The Badiou Dictionary and the editor and translator of Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics by Jacques Rancière.
Introduction
I. Philosophy Backdropped by European Expansion
1. Latin American Perspectives
2. Japanese Perspectives
3. African Perspectives
II. Philosophical Universalization and European Conquest Since 1492
1. Thomas More, Utopia
2. Francisco de Vitoria, De Indis
3. Hugo Grotius, Mare liberum
III. Strategies for the Perfecting of Others: Christianization, Civilization, Modernization
1. Saving Souls Through Baptism
2. Saving Souls Through Mass Education
3. Saving Souls Through Economic Growth and Technology
IV. Philosophical Discriminations: Racism, Anti-Semitism, Sexism
1. Scientific Racial Thinking and the Emergence of Racism
2. Jews as a Threat to Europe
3. Woman as Failed Man
V. European Historiography in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
1. The Theorization of History as Science Around 1750
2. Colonial Reconstructions of World History in the Eighteenth Century
3. The Heroization of Western Philosophical History in the Name of Universal Reason
VI. The Haitian Revolution, Black Intellectuals, and Raynal's History of European Expansion
1. The Haitian Slave Uprising of 1791
2. Black Intellectuals in Europe and the United States since the Eighteenth Century
3. Raynal's History of European Expansion
VII. Languages: Philosophical and Political Dimensions
1. Languages and the Formation of Nations
2. Language and Colonialism
3. The Diversity of Languages and Philosophy
VIII. Comparative, Intercultural, and Decolonial Philosophy
1. Comparative Philosophy
2. Intercultural Philosophy
3. Decolonial Philosophy
IX. Decolonizing Knowledge Systems at European Universities
1. Knowledge Systems in Western Universities and European Expansion
2. Research as a Nonword in the Indigenous World
3. Why Is My Curriculum White?
X. Women in Western and Non-Western Philosophy
1. Women in the History of Western Philosophy
2. Post- and Decolonial Feminism
3. Women in Non-Western Philosophy
XI. How Will We Narrate the History(ies) of Philosophy(ies) to Ourselves in the Future?
1. Histories of Philosophies from Global Perspectives
2. Interweaving Histories of Philosophies
3. Global Histories of Philosophy
XII. Notes The Epistemic Decolonization of Europe: Philosophical Responsibility and Critique
1. A Decolonial Critique of Knowledge Systems in Europe
2. Clarifying and Clearing Up Western Philosophy's Colonial Entanglements
3. Taking Philosophical Responsibility versus Apportioning Blame
Notes
Bibliography
Index