Epistemologies of the South Meet the Insurrectionist Turn in Pragmatism: Steps towards a dialogue

Abstract

Recent debates within pragmatist philosophy are creating new openings for encounters and dialogues with alternative epistemologies and approaches to themes at the core of classical pragmatism. This article addresses some of the questions raised by what has been described as the “insurrectionist” challenge to pragmatism, exploring their convergence with the research program of Epistemologies of the South which grew out of the work of the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Santos’s proposal of a postabyssal philosophy draws, among other sources and influences, on an appropriation of contributions of pragmatist philosophy for a radical critique of Eurocentric conceptions of epistemology. This paper offers a discussion of selected topics of import to an ongoing exploration of the affinities, resonances and differences between the postabyssal conception of knowledges born out of struggle that underpins the project of Epistemologies of the South, on the one hand, and emerging “insurrectionist” versions or pragmatism, which extend and radicalize classical pragmatism, on the other, as well as possible paths to future dialogues.