Should universities exclude Plato, Descartes and Kant from the curriculum? Debating the decolonization of philosophy and the enlightenment at SOAS

Students at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) have set up a campaign to “Decolonise Our Minds”, demanding a transformation of the curriculum, which caused outrage in the British press.

The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (photo: Alun Salt, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Kenan Malik, author of the book “The Quest for a Moral Compass. A Global History of Ethics”, visited SOAS in order to investigate the  source of dissent. In his article “Are Soas students right to ‘decolonise’ their minds from western philosophers?”, published by The Guardian on Sunday, February 19, he discusses the possibilites of diversifying the curriculum at (British) universities. Taking up the radical claim of the students, he raises the question if decolonization should really lead to the exclusion of the European philosophical tradition.

Please find the article here.