Encountering Other Cultural Universes on the Brink of Chaos

IF 1 Q3 SOCIOLOGY Journal of World-Systems Research Pub Date : 2022-08-25 DOI:10.5195/jwsr.2022.1141
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
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Abstract

It is hard to imagine that we share the journey with someone coming in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, I think that this strange sharing is perhaps what best characterizes our time. Coming from very different trajectories and histories, from the accumulation of multi-secular defeats or victories, different cultural universes (philosophical, aesthetic, political, ontological, epistemological, ethical) seem today more exposed than ever to the presence of and competition with rival universes in conditions that do not allow unilateral movements, be they of assimilation or of conquest. The inequalities of power among them exist and are historically sedimented, but they are increasingly relative and unequally distributed among the different areas of collective life or the different regions of the world. The opposite trajectories converge in a field of maximum uncertainty that produces restlessness and instability. The sharing of uncertainty is bound to result in the uncertainty of sharing. The Eurocentric Western cultural universe comes from a long trajectory of historical victories that seems to have come to an end. Europe spent five centuries dominating and teaching the non-European world and finds itself today increasingly in the condition of no longer being able to dominate nor having anything to teach (Santos 2020: 31–53). The drama of the cultural universe that considers itself historically victorious is that it does not want to learn from the cultural universes it has become accustomed to defeat and to teach. In turn, the non-Western cultural universes, be they Eastern (Chinese or Indian), Islamic, African, ISSN: 1076-156X | Vol. 28 Issue 2 | DOI 10.5195/JWSR.2022.1141 | jwsr.pitt.edu
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在混乱的边缘遇到其他文化宇宙
很难想象我们会和相反方向的人一起分享这段旅程。然而,我认为这种奇怪的分享也许是我们这个时代最好的特征。不同的文化宇宙(哲学的、美学的、政治的、本体论的、认识论的、伦理的)来自非常不同的轨迹和历史,来自多世俗的失败或胜利的积累,今天似乎比以往任何时候都更暴露于敌对宇宙的存在和竞争,在不允许单边运动的条件下,无论是同化还是征服。它们之间的权力不平等是存在的,并且是历史沉淀的,但它们在集体生活的不同领域或世界不同区域之间的相对和不平等分布日益增加。相反的轨迹汇聚在一个产生不安和不稳定的最大不确定性的领域。不确定性的共享必然导致共享的不确定性。以欧洲为中心的西方文化宇宙来自于一个漫长的历史胜利轨迹,这个轨迹似乎已经走到了尽头。欧洲花了五个世纪的时间统治和教育非欧洲世界,今天发现自己越来越无法再统治,也没有任何东西可以教(Santos 2020: 31-53)。认为自己在历史上取得了胜利的文化世界的戏剧是,它不想向它已经习惯了失败和教导的文化世界学习。反过来,非西方文化宇宙,无论是东方(中国或印度),伊斯兰教,非洲,ISSN: 1076-156X | Vol. 28 Issue 2 | DOI 10.5195/JWSR.2022.1141 | jwsr.pitt.edu
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Journal of World-Systems Research
Journal of World-Systems Research Social Sciences-Political Science and International Relations
CiteScore
1.80
自引率
0.00%
发文量
24
审稿时长
30 weeks
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