Reclaiming the Dividual: Language, Solidarity, and Epistemic Decolonization

Abstract The article advocates for epistemic justice. It promotes knowledge inclusion and respect for Indigenous ways of knowing. To this end, it analyzes the impact that language has on the shape of thinking and human attitudes by addressing the neglected issue of the “dividual-individual” dichotomy. This is a linguistic problem, but one that reveals multidimensional epistemic relationships and their consequences. The author challenges understanding of ‘dividual’ in Western culture and anthropology, proposing instead a meaning grounded in multiple dimensions of social life – one centered on solidarity, which fosters respect through the values of dignity, voluntary sacrifice, autonomy, and diversity. The article offers the concept of ‘dividual person/dividuum’ as preventing the epistemic and social injustice. Drawing on Indigenous wisdom, the article redefines ‘dividual’ rooted in the ethical norm of respect for relationality and common good, offering a critique of Western individualism and its neglect of communal dignity. Such attitudes have been pursued for centuries by some Indigenous communities, those especially at the cultural core of North America. The article advocates for the normative canons of these communities to serve as inspiration for modern societies. It does so by emphasizing respect for relationality as a source of wisdom and communal strength, and by advancing the ‘dividual’ perspective – in both epistemic and ethical dimensions – that representatives of increasingly individualistic developed societies (not solely Western) are losing through hubristic, egoistic, and non-rational attitudes toward the socio-natural environment.