The necessary plurality: Butler, Anzaldúa and Nietzschean Studies

Abstract

The present work elucidates the axiom of "the necessary plurality" from some coves and notes of the thought of Judith Butler and some crosses coming from the philosophy of Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as the contemporary postnietzschean influence, in contrast to the thought Latin American subaltern mestizo of Gloria Anzaldúa. The central Nietzschean hypothesis is explained in these terms: there is no metaphysical foundation that sustains the world; everything is a cultural construction, the result of the prevailing power in a given historical context. Power is what establishes what is normal or abnormal, what is allowed or not allowed. In this context, the need to submit the reigning power devices in contemporary societies under a critical review that allows them to transform them into power devices that make plural and inclusive societies possible. And right here, in the opening of a new post-metaphysical and post-humanist horizon, the subaltern mestizo perspective of Gloria Anzaldúa is retaken as a radical way of rethinking the human condition beyond Euro-logo-phallocentrism from the margins of Latin America. The necessary plurality, far from being a contradictory title, is, rather, a title that expresses an affirmation, namely, the need for a plural, inclusive social reality, in which the differences between human beings are respected, following the ideal of a democratic society in which openness to others is cultivated, in an atmosphere of coexistence and dialogue.