Provincializing europe: towards a post-colonial reconstruction: a critique of baconian science as the last stand of imperialism

Abstract

This article treats Europe's claim to universality as its problematic, and contends that any serious attempt to reorganize the past and/or the future must subvert the European appropriation of the universal. Noting that the justification for Europe's ‘confiscation’ of the universal is often grounded in the argument that only Europe has succeeded in inventing an epistemological tool (namely, Baconian science) that successfully opens the doors to Truth, the article seeks to further its project of provincializing Europe by demonstrating the inadequacy of Euro-science as humanity's chosen vehicle to Truth. This the article does by developing the thesis that violence is encoded in the very fabric of modern science. Following a broadly Gandhian perspective, therefore, the article rejects science's epistemological pretensions. Such rejection of Euro-science, the article points out, leads also to a denial of Europe's presumed universality. Finally, the paper offers some preliminary thoughts on a post-science reorganization of knowledge-creative practices.

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