Wednesday, 29^th January 2025, 6 pm CET (=UTC+1); online

Prof. Carlos Sanchez, Philosophy, San José State University, CA, USA:

“A Question of Dignity: Emilio Uranga Against the Arrogance of Western Traditions”

Abstract: 

This talk is about Emilio Uranga’s deconstruction of the twin notions of "humanity" and "human dignity," both inherited from the colonial humanist tradition in Mexico. These are essentialist conceptions that conceive humanity on, what Uranga calls, “substantial” grounds. On this view, to be human, and to be a candidate of dignity, worthiness, and respect, is to exhibit the qualities of either rational or divine substance, that is, to be and behave according to a determined criteria itself determined culturally, historically, or religiously—in other words, to live according to profoundly Eurocentric criteria. The problem is that when human worthiness is determined in such a way, those not meeting the criteria are designated as “subhuman” and ultimately subject to mistreatment and, even, extermination. This was the case with the colonial conception of what it meant to be human, which tied dignity to substantiality, to how one is rational or Godly in the right, European, way. Uranga argues that whenever dignity is based on substance, then it is based on an ideal that is neither “authentic” nor real, but ideal, and therefore “inhuman.” Uranga concludes that true humanity is not substantial in the way that the West has claimed; that to be is to be undetermined, transitory, or "accidental."  

Bio:

Carlos Sanchez is full professor of philosophy at San José University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University in 1998, a Master in Philosophy from the same place, and a PhD in Philosophy from The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM, in 2006. In the same year he returned to San José University. His research and publications chronicle his adventures in the history of 20th century Mexican philosophy.