Leibniz Has a Dream: Philosophy as a Social Techné

How can academic philosophy prevent discrimination against minorities in philosophical discourses without being dogmatic or oppressive itself? How can non-oppressive discourses in academic philosophy provide resources for fruitful progress of knowledge? In order to answer these questions, firstly, a fictional academic discourse called “A-world-view” will be presented, which serves as an example of philosophical limitation in the form of a narrow understanding of rationality standards. A-world view leaves no space for critical discussions on biased behavior against individual members of philosophical discourses. It will be argued that a limited view on academic philosophy is challenged by Sally Haslanger’s theory of Social Techné. In a second step, Haslanger’s arguments are supported by a rarely noticed meta-philosophical essay on the “Philosophical Dream” by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. A combination of Leibniz’ metaphysics and Haslanger’s socio-political claims, called ‘academic perspectivism’, will be proposed. In the end there is an explanation of academic perspectivism as a possibility of taking philosophical practice as a paradigmatic case of a social techné.