Beyond abyssal thinking: from global lines to ecologies of knowledges

Sousa Santos, Boaventura

Modern Western thinking is an abyssal thinking. It operates through radical lines that divide social reality into two realms, the realm of 'this side of the line' and the realm of 'the other side of the line.' The division is such that 'the other side of the line' vanishes as reality, becomes nonexistent, and is indeed produced as nonexistent. What most fundamentally characterizes abyssal thinking is thus the impossibility of the copresence of the two sides of the line. The other side of the abyssal line is the realm of beyond legality and illegality (lawlessness), of beyond truth and falsehood (incomprehensible beliefs, idolatry, magic). These forms of radical negation together result in a radical absence, the absence of humanity, modern subhumanity. This article argues that although colonialism provided the model for modern radical negation and exclusion, this is as true today as in the colonial period. Modern Western thinking goes on operating through abyssal lines that divide the human from the subhuman in such a way that human principles don't get compromised by inhuman practices. First, the tension between regulation and emancipation (on this side of the line) continues to coexist with the tension between appropriation and violence (on the other side of the line) in such a way that the universality of the first tension is not contradicted by the existence of the second one. Secondly, abyssal lines continue to structure modern knowledge and modern law. Thirdly, these two abyssal lines are constitutive of Western-based political and cultural relations and interactions in the modern world-system. The struggle for global social justice must, therefore, be a struggle for global cognitive justice as well. In order to succeed, this struggle requires a new kind of thinking, a postabyssal thinking. Reprinted by permission of the Fernand Braudel Center
Number: 1

2007

o http://www.boaventuradesousasantos.pt/media/pdfs/Beyond_Abyssal_Thinking_Review_2007.PDF

Queries

Handapparate - Ästhetische Praxis / Critical Media Studies 2019 - K10 Aesthetics of Remediation Handapparate - Ästhetische Praxis / Critical Media Studies 2019 Handapparate catalog - mediathek catalog - HGK catalog - Handapparate catalog - HGKplus

Full spec

DateAdded: 2022-10-11T09:04:53Z
DateModified: 2022-10-11T09:04:53Z
ISSN: 0147-9032
Issue: 1
Key: MF6ZJM8U
Language: eng
LibraryCatalog: recherche.nebis.ch
Pages: 45–89
PublicationTitle: Review. Fernand Braudel Center
ShortTitle: Beyond abyssal thinking
Volume: xxx

- Handapparate

Beyond abyssal thinking: from global lines to ecologies of knowledges

Tags

Queries

Full spec

Rethinking Repair

Feral Dynamics of Post-Industrial Ruin: An Introduction

Beyond breakdown: Exploring Regimes of Maintenance

The Global, the post-Abyssal and the Cosmopolitcal

Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective

Repair: the impulse to restore in a fragile world

Texts

Beyond abyssal thinking: from global lines to ecologies of knowledges

Tags

Queries

Full spec

More from "Handapparate - Ästhetische Praxis / Critical Media Studies 2019 - K10 Aesthetics of Remediation"

Rethinking Repair

Feral Dynamics of Post-Industrial Ruin: An Introduction

Beyond breakdown: Exploring Regimes of Maintenance

The Global, the post-Abyssal and the Cosmopolitcal

Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective

Repair: the impulse to restore in a fragile world

Texts