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La hybris del punto cero: Ciencia, raza e ilustración en la Nueva Granada (1750-1816)
Inscrito en la perspectiva de los estudios poscoloniales, este trabajo parte del supuesto de que la violencia ejercida por el colonialismo europeo en el mundo no fue solo física y económica sino también "epistémica". El autor defiende la tesis de que hacia finales del siglo XVIII, la violencia epistémica del imperio español en América asume una forma especí la hybris del punto cero. Es el momento en que la irrupción mundial del capitalismo exigía que la multiplicidad de expresiones culturales del planeta fuera traducida como una serie de diferencias ordenadas en el tiempo. Las "muchas formas de conocer" quedan integradas en una jerarquía cronológica donde el conocimiento científicoilustrado aparece en el lugar más alto de la escala cognitiva, mientras que todas las demás epistemes son vistas como su pasado. Los pensadores criollos ilustrados, vehículos de esta nueva política del significado, no dudaron en ubicar alos negros, indios y mestizos de la Nueva Granada en el lugar más bajo de la escala cognitiva. A estas poblaciones y no a los criollos debían dirigirse las biopolíticas disciplinarias del imperio. Situación que lleva al autor a defender la tesis de que en la periferia colonial hispanoamericana, Auklärung no era solo el lugar de la distancia étnica de los criollos frente a las "castas". A la pureza cognitiva a nivel de la ciencia correspondería entonces una puereza de sangre a nivel de la nación. La violencia epistémica y no solo la violencia física se encontraría así en el origen mismo de la nacionalidad colombiana.
429 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 25, 2013
7 people are currently reading
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About the author
Santiago Castro-Gómez
18 books9 followersSantiago Castro-Gómez is a philosopher known for his works on colonial heritages in Colombia.
He studied philosophy in Universidad Santo Tomás de Bogotá, where he became a disciple of professors of the Grupo de Bogotá, who were the main diffusers in Colombia of the Latin American Philosphy. Then he travelled to Germany to do a Magister in Philosophy
in Tübingen University, and later his PhD in Johann Wolfgang Goethe - Universität de Frankfurt.
Once he returned to Colombia he became a professor in Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, also as a reasearcher for the Instituto Pensar. Along with scholars like Anínal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, Enrique Düssel, Ramón Grosfoguel, Catherine Walsh, Arturo Escobar, Edgardo Lander y Nelson Mladonado-Torres, joined the group Modernidad/Colonialidad, one of the main focus of the Critical Latinoamerican Theory since the beggining of the XXI century.
He studied philosophy in Universidad Santo Tomás de Bogotá, where he became a disciple of professors of the Grupo de Bogotá, who were the main diffusers in Colombia of the Latin American Philosphy. Then he travelled to Germany to do a Magister in Philosophy
in Tübingen University, and later his PhD in Johann Wolfgang Goethe - Universität de Frankfurt.
Once he returned to Colombia he became a professor in Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, also as a reasearcher for the Instituto Pensar. Along with scholars like Anínal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, Enrique Düssel, Ramón Grosfoguel, Catherine Walsh, Arturo Escobar, Edgardo Lander y Nelson Mladonado-Torres, joined the group Modernidad/Colonialidad, one of the main focus of the Critical Latinoamerican Theory since the beggining of the XXI century.
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April 27, 2023
Zero-Point Hubris is a historical study of the consciousness of colonial settlers in Latin America at the turn of modernity, and specifically of the colonial self-consciousness of the cultural and political elites of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Granada between 1750 and the early 19th century.
Its value and strength lay more in restituting a complex picture, based in a study of archival sources, of the tenor of the public debate of the epoch on a number of capital issues (spanning from race and hierarchies, to health policies, to geographical mapping and economics), rather than in what it explicitly and primarily purports to do, that of being a sort of Foucauldian genealogical criticism of a - loosely defined - Science of the 'Enlightenment' and its colonial applications as instrumental for maintaining European and criollo racial domination.
NB: There is something offsetting about the the structure of the argument and the progression of the chapters and their periodization. I didn't quite understand why for instance the first chapter was not placed after the second one, or why the Preface to the English edition and the Introduction repeat much of what is exposed in the first chapter. I recommend then to start reading from the Epilogue and from the English Translators' Introduction, both of which put the book's intention in historical context, explaining to the non-specialist readership what implicitly constitutes its milieu of reference and the Latin American cultural background against which it works as a reflection, criticism and reconfiguration, and therefore what the stakes of the project are, and what its contribution to decolonial theory and political philosophy at large. (6,5/10)
Its value and strength lay more in restituting a complex picture, based in a study of archival sources, of the tenor of the public debate of the epoch on a number of capital issues (spanning from race and hierarchies, to health policies, to geographical mapping and economics), rather than in what it explicitly and primarily purports to do, that of being a sort of Foucauldian genealogical criticism of a - loosely defined - Science of the 'Enlightenment' and its colonial applications as instrumental for maintaining European and criollo racial domination.
NB: There is something offsetting about the the structure of the argument and the progression of the chapters and their periodization. I didn't quite understand why for instance the first chapter was not placed after the second one, or why the Preface to the English edition and the Introduction repeat much of what is exposed in the first chapter. I recommend then to start reading from the Epilogue and from the English Translators' Introduction, both of which put the book's intention in historical context, explaining to the non-specialist readership what implicitly constitutes its milieu of reference and the Latin American cultural background against which it works as a reflection, criticism and reconfiguration, and therefore what the stakes of the project are, and what its contribution to decolonial theory and political philosophy at large. (6,5/10)
Displaying 1 of 1 review