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Why have moral philosophers largely ignored colonialism? Shyam Ranganathan tells the story of moral philosophy and colonialism and reveals the benefits of drawing from a colonized tradition to a create a rigorous logic-based ethics. This is a timely exploration of the the ways in which western colonialism has structured moral theorizing to insulate itself from criticism. In his account of the domination of the European tradition and the suppression of questions of its colonialism, Ranganathan covers the evolution of metaethics, normative ethics and applied ethics in ancient European, Chinese and Indian traditions of philosophy. We see the presence of white supremacy in the writings of J.S. Mill, Marx and Engels and the importance placed on autonomy and sovereignty in Hobbes and Kant. The European influence of interpretation on our peer review of historical philosophy is evident throughout. Using South Asia as an example Ranganathan examines how colonizers are able to erase moral philosophical history and redefine cultures as religions, judged in terms of their conformity to, or deviation from, the western tradition, which is treated as secular. His acknowledgment of Yoga as a basic ethical theory introduces us to thinking that recognizes persons as a diverse group, traversing sex, gender, race, sexual orientation, and species. Through this analysis of colonized traditions and ethics, Ranganathan is able to de-colonize moral philosophy by looking outside the colonizing tradition. If we want sophisticated and inclusive ways of thinking about how to live we must turn towards indigenous thought.
List of contents
Introduction(1) Western Colonialism and Finding Absent Moral Philosophy
Part I: Metaethics(2) Logic vs. Colonialism: Secularism vs. Secularism
(3) Weaponizing Moral Semantics
(4) Peer Review and The Illusion of White Supremacy
Part II: Normative Ethics(5) Conventional Morality: Good Character, Good Outcomes, Good Rules
(6) Yoga: Three Levels of Decolonization
Part III: Applied Ethics(7) The Religious Right, Polarization and Colonial Trauma
Conclusion (8) Moral Philosophy, Research and Activism
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Shyam Ranganathan is in the Faculty of the Department of Philosophy and York Centre for Asian Research at York University, Canada.
