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.

Wednesday, 26th March., 6 pm:.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Marília de Nardin Budó, Law School, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil:

"Environmental Restorative Justice Beyond Modernity's Colonial and Ecological Divides"

Environmental restorative justice offers a powerful framework for addressing ecological destruction and loss. However, enduring challenges have limited its transformative potential. This presentation examines these challenges through Malcolm Ferdinand's concept of the "double fracture of modernity", Arturo Escobar’s “coloniality of nature”, and Cida Bento’s “narcissistic pact of whiteness”.

The first challenge involves confronting entrenched power structures where environmental harm is perpetrated by privileged actors whose actions are legitimized by state systems prioritizing "development." The second challenge concerns the marginalization of those most affected by environmental degradation—women, Black and Indigenous communities, more-than-human animals, and natural entities—who have resisted to multiple "ends of the world" in their territories. 

Both challenges stem from the coloniality of power: the colonial fracture that establishes racial hierarchies to rank humans, knowledge, and territories; and the ecological fracture that positions humans above other species through anthropocentrism. Both challenges are perpetuated not merely through capitalism's material relations, but through interlocking systems of whiteness and cis-hetero-patriarchy—forms of colonial supremacism that systematically exclude plural epistemologies and ontologies from global policymaking and international justice systems. 

This exclusion severely limits our capacity to establish meaningful accountability for perpetrators of ongoing ecocides and genocides, while simultaneously preventing our collective imagination from conceiving justice beyond Western frameworks. By understanding environmental justice through this dual lens, we can shift from merely restorative to truly transformative justice approaches. This presentation argues for contextualizing environmental conflicts within their historical and present-day colonial continuities, creating space for epistemologies and ontologies other than modern western rationality that can guide us toward broader and plural perspectives of justice.