Ibarrando Lasa, Alisha
Theis topic: ‘Existentialism in a postcolonial framework: A re-examination of freedom and responsibility in the context of Orientalism.’
Contact address at the Universita of Würzburg:
Institut für Philosophie
Ehrenhof, Südflügel
Residenzplatz
97070 Würzburg
E-Mail Frau Ibarrando Lasa
Principal supervisor: Prof. Dr. Matthias Flatscher
Co-supervisors:
Prof. Dr. Rieke Trimcev (Martin-Luther Universität Halle)
Class at the Graduate School: "Philosophy, Languages, Arts"
Doctorate at the Graduate School from WS 2026/27.
Abstract:
This study examines the construction of Western identity in the context of existentialist freedom and colonial hegemony. At its heart lies the thesis that the colonial discourse on the ‘Orient’ (Said) can be understood as a collective mauvaise foi (Sartre): In order to repress the ontological contingency of its own being and to maintain an image of stable, rational sovereignty, the Western subject constructs the ‘Oriental’ as its essentialised, static and inferior Other. Colonialism is understood here not merely as an external system of domination, but as institutionalised self-deception that transforms the radical freedom of the individual into rigid hierarchical categories. By drawing on Hannah Arendt’s concept of thinking and plurality, this paper analyses how this construction of identity is based on a refusal to think, which systematically excludes alternative perspectives and thus leads to ethical thoughtlessness.
