A Sense of Brutality: Philosophy after Narco-Culture

Carlos Alberto Sanchez (San Jose State University), Sergio A. Gallegos-Ordorica (John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY)), Manuela Alejandra Gomez (El Paso Community College)

Carlos Alberto Sánchez will be virtually visiting the University of Washington to talk about his newest book, A Sense of Brutality, and he will be addressing two of his critics, Sergio A. Gallegos and Manuela Gomez. Sánchez's new book (which you can download for free using the link below) is a work in Mexican existentialism and phenomenology that attempts to make an intervention in recent debates concerning the nature of violence, cruelty, and dehumanization (e.g., Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, and Derrida). Sánchez uses the phenomenon of Narco-culture to show the limits (and Eurocentrism) of these recent debates. He argues that, at least in how the terms have been deployed by philosophers, the brutality of something like Narco-culture cannot be adequately captured. This shows not only some of the limits of this sort of philosophical discourse but also helps to explain why philosophy has had little (if anything) insightful to say about such pressing topics as Narco-culture.  

Join Zoom Meeting: https://washington.zoom.us/j/93672154066