How racist is philosophy, Ms Martinez Mateo?

“When it comes down to it, it’s basically just a few European thinkers who influence western societies’ self-image to this day,” says Martinez Mateo. “Whereby there is little awareness of how their philosophies are embedded in history.” This means that knowledge always develops in a certain context and is shaped by the contemporary conditions of power and violence. There are consequently underlying sexist and racist ideas in the works of great philosophers, too. Even the philosophy of the Enlightenment comes in for critical scrutiny on this point: “Kant, for example, elaborated a whole theory of race and thus contributed to modern racial thought,” says Martinez Mateo, who is investigating the relationship between philosophy and racism. 

Anyone who works on theories and concepts developed by Kant and co. today can inadvertently pass on racist assumptions, explains Martinez Mateo. “I would like to see philosophical-historical research taking a closer look at its own methods, the selection of sources and the implications associated with them,” she says. At the same time, the researcher continues, we often miss the view of thinkers from other parts of the world who have contributed exciting ideas. Translations of European texts into other contexts had also generated new questions and philosophical traditions. Texts were reinterpreted and politicised. Martinez Mateo argues that opening up more to these global aspects would have a beneficial effect on pluralising philosophical teaching and research.