Situated universals (visions from the Third World)

Abstract

This paper is a version of a talk I gave at the Workshop “Kant and Universalism from a Global Perspective”, October 25th 2024, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. I reflect on my experience with geopolitics of knowledge as a professional philosopher from the Third World, on the colonial, Eurocentred, racist, and misogynist character of the Kantian academe, and on the possible ways out of it. I call for a radical re-elaboration of the philosophical canon based not merely on adding more (European) philosophers to it, but on listening to voices reading the canon from outside of Europe and the USA. True universals are situated universals that do not pretend to be ideals.