June 4 - 7, 2008| Cité des Métiers, Le Raizet, Guadeloupe 5TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CARIBBEAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION Theme: Shifting the Geography of Reason V: Intellectual Movements

2008 Panel Call for Papers: What is Enlightenment? Invitation to a Post-Colonial Debate

Has the project of decolonisation been a project of Enlightenment? Can it be one? Should it be one? If yes, in what sense?

This panel is to put in conversation different Caribbean, Latin American and other post-colonial perspectives on these questions. It is not an invitation to a post-colonial reflection on the European Enlightenment, important as this could be and has been. It is rather a call for papers dealing with the meaning of “Enlightenment” in a post-colonial context. How do the questions of cultural authenticity and critique relate to that of Enlightenment? Is to have a thought of one’s own, which has been such a central yearning for post-colonial thinkers, a way of becoming enlightened? What do the notions of intellectual decolonisation, historicization, and indigenisation imply for a post-colonial Enlightenment? In what ways does the gendering of critique contribute to such an Enlightenment? In what ways have the critiques of nationalism, traditionalism and modernity led to a form of enlightened awareness? What notion of reason do these critiques assume?

A comparative reading of post-colonial debates on culture and critique show the centrality of these issues across regions, religions, races, cultures and traditions. The comparative approach can be a helpful way of overcoming prevailing beliefs in exceptionalism. It can help shed the light on the common challenges of critique in post-colonial situations. An exchange of notes can also help us take stock of decades of reflection on these questions. In what ways has this reflection enlightened us, if at all?

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Contact Elizabeth Kassab at elizabeth.kassab@balamand.edu.lb or the Caribbean Philosophical Association at caribphil@yahoo.com with questions.