ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that avoiding and denying the contextual influences on philosophical systems and trends is the work of an epistemology of ignorance. That is, transcendental illusions about the creation of philosophical ideas and the progression of philosophical debates must be cultivated and protected. Such illusions have been and continue to be functional for certain groups of philosophers, not to mention the empires that house them. The chapter also argues that Eurocentrism is more than simply a preference for a particular tradition of philosophical thought, but a practice of ensuring ignorance that perpetuates the sort of epistemic injustices that came to be consolidated in many European intellectual trends during its extended efforts to colonize the globe. Continuing to separate philosophical practice from its context obscures this fact, disabling critical reflexivity, justifying exclusivity, indeed, justifying a rather appalling ignorance about others and other intellectual traditions.
