Yuk Hui’s Post-Europe (2024) is a profound meditation on the philosophical and geopolitical condition of our time, marked by the decline of European hegemony and the pervasive spread of global capitalism. In this work, Hui explores the concept of Heimatlosigkeit (homelessness) as articulated by twentieth-century European philosophers, particularly Heidegger, who declared it the “destiny of the world.” Rather than seeking a return to a lost Heimat (homeland), Hui argues for embracing this state of becoming-homeless as a starting point for thought.
Drawing on thinkers such as Gilbert Simondon, Jacques Derrida, Bernard Stiegler, Jan Patočka, and East Asian philosophers like Kitaro Nishida, Keiji Nishitani, and Mou Zongsan, Hui envisions a project of post-European thinking. This approach does not aim to neutralize differences or revert to tradition but seeks an individuation of thinking between East and West. Such individuation involves developing new modes of confronting capitalism, technology, and planetarization that are neither purely European nor entirely non-European.
Hui critiques the global spread of technology, which, while no longer exclusively European, continues to propagate cognitive models that inhibit alternative ways of thinking. He emphasizes that the planetary dissemination of technology has established a global axis of time, synchronizing all civilizations to the metric of European modernity. To counter this, Hui proposes a re-individuation of thinking that acknowledges and incorporates diverse cosmotechnical traditions.
In the coda, Hui reflects on the figure of the “Good Post-European,” inspired by Nietzsche’s “Good European.” This figure embodies a new philosophical stance that recognizes the end of European centrality and seeks to cultivate a thinking that is responsive to the multiplicity of world traditions. Hui also introduces the concept of the “magic tongue,” referring to the linguistic and corporeal dimensions of thought that connect individuals to their cultural and cosmological milieus.
Post-Europe thus offers a compelling vision for a future-oriented philosophy that transcends Eurocentrism by embracing a pluralistic and cosmotechnical approach to technology, culture, and thought.
