Epistemology and Domination: Problems with the Coloniality of Knowledge Thesis in Latin American Decolonial Theory

Paul Anthony Chambers

doi:10.1590/dados.2020.63.4.221

Abstract

ABSTRACT Latin American decolonial theory is built around the thesis of the “coloniality of knowledge”, which claims that the socio-political domination of Latin America and other regions of the global periphery by European countries and the United States is directly related to the initial colonial imposition and subsequent cultural reproduction of so-called “Western epistemology” and science. I argue that the epistemological claims of four decolonial thinkers (Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, Enrique Dussel, Santiago Castro-Gómez) that make up the coloniality of knowledge thesis are problematic for several reasons: they are based on distorted and simplistic readings of Descartes, Hume and other Enlightenment figures; they make contentious generalizations about so-called Western epistemology; and they ultimately lead to epistemic relativism, which is a problematic basis for the social sciences and, contrary to decolonial aspirations, renders the subaltern unable to speak.

Highlights

Latin American decolonial theory as developed and propagated by Aníbal Quijano (2007), Walter Mignolo (2011), Enrique Dussel (2008), Ramón Grosfoguel (2013), Santiago Castro-Gómez (2005), and Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2014), among others, is increasingly influential both within Latin America and beyond
My aim is not to defend a positive thesis about the problematic political and sociological dimensions of knowledge production – which are highlighted by decolonial thinkers, but to demonstrate why the epistemological arguments underpinning the coloniality of knowledge thesis are problematic, especially in relation to claims made about Descartes1
Whilst I agree with Sujata Patel (2014:605) that “Eurocentrism is associated with the production, distribution, consumption and reproduction of knowledge unequally across the different parts of the world”, my claim is that the decolonial thinkers analysed here fail to adequately demonstrate that Eurocentrism and the skewed and often unjust structures of global knowledge production, as well as wider forms of domination, have anything to do with Cartesian/Western epistemology and its related philosophical categories

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Latin American decolonial theory as developed and propagated by Aníbal Quijano (2007), Walter Mignolo (2011), Enrique Dussel (2008), Ramón Grosfoguel (2013), Santiago Castro-Gómez (2005), and Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2014), among others, is increasingly influential both within Latin America and beyond. This is highly problematic; does it portray Enlightenment scientists as obsessive, calculating machines devoid of humanity, it logically implies that they must have deemed many of their own beliefs, non-scientific naming schemes and cultural practices invalid and illegitimate It is this caricature of Enlightenment epistemology and science that provides the framework for his thesis of the “zero point”, which Castro-Gómez (2005:18) describes in the following way: It is the idea that an observer of the social world can stand on a neutral platform of observation and at the same time not be observed from any angle. It is to posit a realist social ontology: it is to insinuate that there is a world consisting of some regularities or patterns (even if they are not total or universal) that is observable and knowable

CONCLUSION

14. What does “the quantitative indeterminacy of any quality” actually mean?