Philosophy departments encourage students to think about the world based on a canon composed, for the most part, of white men from five countries.

This canon is not the product of rigor or neutral rationality, but the historical result of centuries of racism, colonialism, and exclusion that have given rise to a grand theory of ignorance.

This seminar aims to challenge the colonial narratives that have shaped our education and dismantle many of the "truths" that permeate philosophy classrooms. It is an invitation to rid our minds of Eurocentrism and white supremacy.

Over the course of ten sessions, we will have lectures such as those by Ramón Grosfoguel and Katya Colmenares, among others, and the analysis of fundamental texts for critical and decolonial thinking.

We will work from the works of authors such as Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter, Ousmane Kane, Enrique Dussel, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Santiago Castro-Gómez, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Jonardon Ganeri, Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya, Cedric Robinson, Sarah Winnemucca, Walter Rodney, Angela Davis, Stuart Hall, Sojourner Truth, Dipesh Chakrabarty, David Graeber… and many more.

The basic and supplementary readings that we will link to in each session are recommended for a better understanding of the seminar, but are not required for attendance. You can access them by clicking on the titles.

Programme

Tuesday, October 21 – Ramón Gómez de la Serna Room
Decolonizing the canon of philosophy
What explains the predominance of a philosophical canon centered on European authors? Why do we continue to reproduce a narrative inherited from Hegel in the 21st century? This session opens the seminar with a critical look at the Westernized university and the difference between diversifying and decolonizing.

Basic readings:
Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (excerpt)
Santiago Castro-Gómez “Decolonizing the university. The hubris of the zero point”
Nelson Maldonado-Torres et al. “Decolonizing Philosophy”

Further reading:
Shari Stone-Mediatore, “Global ethics, epistemic colonialism and paths towards more democratic knowledge”
Lewis R. Gordon, “Decolonizing Philosophy”
Jonardon Ganeri, “A Manifesto for the Philosophy of Re:emergence”

Tuesday, November 25 – María Zambrano Room
Decolonizing the social sciences
Ramón Grosfoguel (University of Berkeley)
A key conference to understand how coloniality permeates the social sciences and what alternative forms of knowledge open up from a decolonial perspective.

Reading:

Decolonizing the history of science. Ramón Grosfoguel

Thursday, December 11 
A global history of philosophy. Repositioning Europe as a province
From what perspective has the history of thought been written? Global history allows us to question the myth of European exceptionalism and open the philosophy classroom to traditionally excluded ideas and authors.

Basic readings:
The little word "philosophy"
African philosophy
Why philosophy needs Sanskrit (now more than ever)

Further reading:
Global history. Excerpt.
Philosophy of fusion. Excerpt

Thursday, January 22 – Ramón Gómez de la Serna Room
The myths of European modernity
We situate ourselves in the “long 16th century” to understand how the modern world-system emerged and what role colonialism and philosophy played in its legitimization. We reflect on the modern legacy and Enrique Dussel’s proposal of transmodernity.

Readings:
Enrique Dussel. Towards a Theory of Modernity
Mary Louise Pratt. Rethinking Modernity
Santiago Castro-Gómez. The Myth of Modernity.

Tuesday, February 17 – Ramón Gómez de la Serna Room
The century of lights turned on and off
Can the Enlightenment be conceived without the voices that were excluded from it? We read authors from the African and Indian colonies who confronted Enlightenment discourses from their own horizons of meaning.

Basic readings:
Why don't philosophers talk about slavery? Meyns.
The African Enlightenment. Herbjørnsrud
Hatata Investigations (excerpt)
Haiti's forgotten revolution. Grüner

Additional reading: India and the world in the 17th century. Ganeri.

Tuesday, March 10 – Ramón Gómez de la Serna Room
European Universalism and the Rumored Legacy of Hegel
Is there only one valid reason? In this session we question modern philosophical universalism from the historical experience of colonialism and slavery, and we approach other ways of thinking about dialectics and self-awareness.

Basic readings:
Hegel and Haiti (excerpt)
What Indian philosophy owes to Hegel
Is it possible to be non-Orientalist?
The intimate enemy (excerpt)

Further reading:
Macaulay Act
Independence in ideas

Tuesday, April 14 – Ramón Gómez de la Serna Room
The Black Reason
Invited lecture: Momodou Taal
We explore the genealogies of Afro-descendant thought: Cedric Robinson, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Achille Mbembe. A radical critique of structural and epistemic racism in our societies and knowledge systems.

Basic readings:

1. Nkrumah. Africa must unite.
2. Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks (excerpt).
3. Walter Rodney: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (excerpt)
4. Sylvia Wynter: No Humans Involved: An Open Letter to My Colleagues

Further reading:
Other relevant bibliography for the session

Monday, May 11 – María Zambrano Room
Decolonial feminism
What do decolonial thinkers contribute to feminism? This session addresses the limitations of liberal and Eurocentric feminism, and recovers the struggles against coloniality as the core of all oppression.

Basic readings:

1. Jabardo: Building bridges with Black feminism
2. Sojourner Truth
3. Sarah Winemucca
4. Zakaria: Against white feminism
5. Salem: Islamic Feminism, Intersectionality, and Decoloniality

Tuesday, June 2nd – Ramón Gómez de la Serna Room
Invited speaker: Katya Colmenares
A philosopher of liberation and editor of the Enrique Dussel collection (Akal). A session focused on the intersections between philosophy, liberation, and critical editing of Latin American thought.

Tuesday, June 30nd – Ramón Gómez de la Serna Room
Closing of the seminar. Intellectuals between borders
A final session to bring together the reflections from the seminar and to think, collectively, about what place a philosophy that listens, dialogues and disobeys can have today.