Dissertation Title
The Worlds of Wang Guowei: A Philosophical Case Study of Coloniality
Chair: Franklin Perkins
(Proposal Defended: January 2021)
Dissertation Abstract: My dissertation presents a philosophical case study of the Qing dynasty scholar Wang Guowei. By examining the impacts of coloniality on his thinking, I aim to draw out the relevance of Wang’s theories to decoloniality. Introduced by Aníbal Quijano and developed by thinkers like María Lugones, Walter Mignolo and Nelson Maldonado-Torres, “coloniality” refers to the modalities of knowledge, power and being that, as a result of settler-colonialism, have come to dominate the modern world. “Decoloniality,” by contrast, refers to all projects that seek to liberate our epistemic, ontological and sociopolitical endeavors from the grip of Eurocentric rationality and colonial modernity. The goal of decoloniality is not to simply reject the modern, nor is it to revive the premodern. Instead, decolonial thinkers want to revitalize non-modern viewpoints, empowering them to shape the world. In analyzing Wang’s attempts to grapple with the influx of Western concepts into China and with his nation’s ever-growing precariousness in the face of imperialism and modernization, my hope is to revitalize his theories by observing them through the lens of coloniality. Moreover, with respect to its form, my dissertation, in its case-study approach, aspires to demonstrate what decolonial philosophy can look like in practice.