Pragmatism and Decolonial Thinking: an Analysis of Dewey´s Ethnocentrism

Abstract

On the basis of Walter Mignolo´s and Nishitani Osamu´s ideas, the present text intends to verify to what extent John Dewey´s thought is affected by what MIgnolo calls the colonial matrix of power and the rhetoric of modernity, as well as by Osamu´s distinction between anthropos and humanitas. A comparison with Kant´s anthropological ideas is made, leading to the conclusion that both Authors allowed their respective philosophies to be contaminated by racist biases.