Readings of Emmanuel Levinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Simone Weil: Abstract Universalism and "Details" about the African World: (Translated from the French by Nathalie Segeral and Dominic Thomas).

How can one begin to address the question of the universalism of certain twentieth-century French philosophers and humanists when it comes to Africa? How can one explain that Lévinas, the theoretician of alterity, Merleau-Ponty, who worked on the question of intersubjectivity and was critical of Stalinism, and Weil, who fought against alienation, also produced questionable writings when it came to the colonial liberation of African subjects? How can one explain the humanism of these French philosophers and their connections to earlier historical models (primitive mentality, cultural and social hierarchies) and more contemporary anthropological and sociological works? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]