Decolonizing Western Political Philosophy

• Published in: New political science Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 1 - 24
• Main Author: Mills, Charles W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02-01-2015
• Subjects: Centrality; Colonialism; Cultural studies; Decolonization; Geography; International Law; International Relations; Law; Political Philosophy; Rawls, John; Self-consciousness; Sociology of Culture; U.S.A
• ISSN: 0739-3148; 1469-9931
• DOI: 10.1080/07393148.2014.995491

The past few decades have seen a wave of decolonization in the Western academy. Across a wide array of disciplines-anthropology, cultural studies, education, geography, history, international relations, law, above all, perhaps, literature-we have witnessed the beginnings (and sometimes much more) of a self-conscious rethinking and reorientation of the subject in the light of its past complicity, direct or indirect, with the colonial project. But the rate of progress has not been uniform. I suggest that in Western political philosophy in particular, the decolonizing enterprise has a long way to go, indeed in some respects has barely begun. In this essay, I do a general critique of the tradition for its Eurocentrism, and then turn to a critique of the work of John Rawls specifically, given his centrality to current Anglo-American political philosophy.