Abstract
The Western claim to universality is held responsible for (post)colonial blindness and for environmental destruction. In the light of the evident colonial implications of all philosophical universalisms, it is necessary to ask about the cultural events that have conditioned the pursuits of philosophy. Instead of asking what kind of philosophical thinking can do justice to the requirement of nonanthropocentric, or noncolonial politics, this article takes the inverse path and approaches philosophy from its borders. Such an inversion relates Nancy to Hannah Arendt, but also, surprisingly, to Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. Despite their considerable differences, these three thinkers share, on the one hand, a place of thinking that lies oblique to philosophy, and on the other, an account of plurality as primary and unsublatable in autonomy. The author shows that at the core of this debate lies their account of causality.
