Overview

Operating within the framework of postcolonial studies and decolonial theory, this important work starts from the assumption that the violence exercised by European colonialism was not only physical and economic, but also ‘epistemic’. Santiago Castro-Gómez argues that toward the end of the 18th century, this epistemic violence of the Spanish Empire assumed a specific form: zero-point hubris. The ‘many forms of knowing’ were integrated into a chronological hierarchy in which scientific-enlightened knowledge appears at the highest point on the cognitive scale, while all other epistemes are seen as constituting its past. Enlightened criollo thinkers did not hesitate to situate the blacks, Indians, and mestizos of New Granada in the lowest position on this cognitive scale. Castro-Gómez argues that in the colonial periphery of the Spanish Americas, Enlightenment constituted not only the position of epistemic distance separating science from all other knowledges, but also the position of ethnic distance separating the criollos from the ‘castes’. Epistemic violence—and not only physical violence—is thereby found at the very origin of Colombian nationality.

Full Product Details

9781786613776

Table of Contents

Reviews

Santiago Castro-Gomez is undoubtedly one of the most original Latin American philosophers of the last two decades. Through a series of brilliant books, some of which are finally appearing in English, he has carved a distinct path between the historicizing history of ideas (which gave us Latinamericanism) and an ontologizing decolonial theorizing (which gave us the coloniality of power). Provincializing and localizing the genealogical method Castro-Gomez has forged a powerful analytical method that focuses on epistemic, governmentality, and racializing practices and regimes that renders legible the dialectics between coloniality and modernity. After Zero-Point Hubris we can talk about decolonzing genealogies and we will have to read both Immanuel Kant and Michel Foucault differently.--Eduardo Mendieta, Professor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University With its focus on bio-politics and the creation of an imperial science, Zero-Point Hubris takes decolonial theory to the next level. By focusing on the practices of coloniality in Latin America, Castro-Gomez troubles the rigidity of the binary between center and periphery. He shows how Criollo elites in Latin America fashioned a distinctive form of whiteness, naturalizing inequality and their own privilege. This is a critically important work.--Linda Martin Alcoff, Linda Martin Alcoff, professor of philosophy, City University of New York

Santiago Castro-Gómez is undoubtedly one of the most original Latin American philosophers of the last two decades. Through a series of brilliant books, some of which are finally appearing in English, he has carved a distinct path between the historicizing history of ideas (which gave us Latinamericanism) and an ontologizing decolonial theorizing (which gave us the coloniality of power). Provincializing and localizing the genealogical method Castro-Gómez has forged a powerful analytical method that focuses on epistemic, governmentality, and racializing practices and regimes that renders legible the dialectics between coloniality and modernity. After Zero-Point Hubris we can talk about decolonizing genealogies and we will have to read both Immanuel Kant and Michel Foucault differently. With its focus on bio-politics and the creation of an imperial science, Zero-Point Hubris takes decolonial theory to the next level. By focusing on the practices of coloniality in Latin America, Castro-Gómez troubles the rigidity of the binary between center and periphery. He shows how Criollo elites in Latin America fashioned a distinctive form of whiteness, naturalizing inequality and their own privilege. This is a critically important work.

Author Information

Santiago Castro-Gómez is professor of philosophy at the University of Santo Tomás and the University Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. He has taught as visiting professor at Duke University, Pittsburgh University, and the University of Frankfurt. His first book, Critique of Latin American Reason is now a classic text of Latin American philosophy. His many other publications include La hybris del punto cero, Tejidos oníricos, History of Governmentality, Volumes I & II, and Revolutions without Subject. George Ciccariello-Maher is associate professor of politics and global studies at Drexel University. Don T. Deere is visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available