An unflinching look at the darker side of Western thought, arguing for an acceptance of responsibility as opposed to an apportionment of blame.

Calls for a decolonization of thought and the sciences have become increasingly urgent in recent years and have now reached European universities. Decolonizing Philosophy attempts to clarify why philosophy must also undergo a process of decolonization and what such a process means for research and teaching in philosophy. A central point in this process is the reappraisal of the long-denied entanglements of European philosophy in European expansion and colonialism. Within this context, the book addresses questions about the emergence of scientifically based race theories in philosophy and the Eurocentric historical constructions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It also presents research approaches for overcoming a Eurocentric philosophy and raises the question of how ethical and epistemic responsibility can be assumed in the process of decolonizing thought.

Rolf Elberfeld is Professor of Cultural Philosophy at the University of Hildesheim. Steven Corcoran is the Secretary of Parrhesia, School of Philosophy, Berlin. He is the editor of The Badiou Dictionary and the editor and translator of Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics by Jacques Rancière.