Shannon Hoff
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Memorial University
“The Civilization of the Universal”: The Intersectional, Decolonial, and Phenomenological Revision of Philosophy
The "intersectionality" argument challenges "single-axis thinking" (Crenshaw) and the decolonial critique of Eurocentrism challenges coloniality's "zero-point hubris" (Castro-Gómez). This paper brings decolonial, intersectional, and phenomenological thought together to consider how thinking can avoid these pitfalls. To aid in opposing the pernicious way in which some forms of partiality masquerade as universal, the paper works through the inevitable condition of partiality, showing, through two arguments, that it is our determinacy that affords the possibility of identifying with the perspectives of others and of working toward universality. First, all perspectives share a structure - we experience ourselves as one among many, unfolding inside of an interpersonal reality in which interaction guides us to sense - and this very structure, while rendering us different, opens us to the possibilities of further transformation through exposure. Second, thinking and determinacy are inherently linked, as each of us draws on local, available mechanisms to give expression to meanings we experience as non-local, which means that the possibility of universality lies in answerability to other pairings of determinacy and meaning. The paper concludes by flagging the mechanisms that would support exposure to unfamiliar forms of determinacy and the challenges we face in doing so.