Of essentiality

This new essay introduces the concept of essentiality as the new paradigm that in our post-modern societies can lead to a definition of oneself and the world while faced with its loss of meaning. The world seems to be tumbling under the weight of our aberrations. And yet, we have not really considered what concepts could define a human identity free from archaic residues that were born: of erroneous representations about our origins, of the theory of evolution, of colonial discriminations, and of subjective representations about the others and ourselves that have shaped our world view. Gérard Bulin-Xavier illustrates how some of our regressive attitudes are spawned by our subjectivity and way of looking at the world, and how we need to modify our outlook on the world. He asks how we can reach a definition of ourselves as human beings but also as world citizens, that is based on essentiality. Then, through the concept of the deracialisation of the world, he introduces a pragmatic approach to change whereby the definition of an individual's identity would not depend on his ethnic affiliation any more, so that neither the individual's identity nor that of his group would be infringed.