Science and the Other

Science and the Other is about modern science and its role in the ruling geopolitics of onto-epistemic violence. Tracing back over a century in scientific meta-discourse in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, feminist and decolonial STS, the book explores how scientific universalism has been functioning as an ideological machine for globalising structures of exploitation. By seeking "objective truth" in a world divided into subjects and objects, culture and nature, humans and non-humans, "developed" and "underdeveloped" people and regions, modern science tacitly naturalises structural inequalities and legitimises the exploitation of both non-human nature and a major part of humanity. Modern science has given us the superpowers that brought about the "Anthropocene", but unfortunately not the wisdom to face its existential challenges. There is an urgent need to engage with Other(ed), marginalised ways of knowing in equitable, pluriversal dialogue about the knowledge needed to build liveable world(s). Science and the Other is an in-depth inquiry into the question of what actually hinders us from engaging into cross-fertilising pluriversal dialogue. Based on a three years action research with the Potiguara in north-east Brazil, the book offers a comparative analysis of Potiguara's and scientific cosmologies. Scientists and philosophers have been struggling to provide a coherent naturalistic theory of mind and matter - with little success. Instead, evidence from quantum physics and neuroscience suggests a variety of possible ontological interpretations, some of which describe a world made up by entities and principles with properties comparable to those in the Potiguaras world. However, the Potiguaras cosmology uses radically different metaphors, thereby painting a radically different picture of "reality", and thus, allowing for onto-epistemic shifts and new insights. Accordingly, a dialogue between modern science and Other, hitherto excluded knowledge cultures should not only be possible; looking through the Others lens might also help us find alternative solutions to old, recalcitrant problems (e.g. relativism or the mind-body problem) and open our eyes for new horizons and alternative futures beyond the scope of modern/colonial epistemologies. This is an open access book.