The Philosophy of Accidentality

In mid-twentieth-century Mexican philosophy, a nationalist existentialist project examined how cultural conditions shape human agency. This article revisits the concept of accidentality—an underappreciated experience of one's relationship to norms and social meanings. Accidentality illuminates forms of social subordination and socially scaffolded agency, including cultural alienation, biculturality, and double consciousness.

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Abstract

Abstract In mid-twentieth-century Mexican philosophy, there was a peculiar nationalist existentialist project focused on the cultural conditions of agency. This article revisits some of those ideas, including the idea that there is an important but underappreciated experience of one's relationship to norms and social meanings. This experience—something called accidentality—casts new light on various forms of social subordination and socially scaffolded agency, including cultural alienation, biculturality, and double consciousness.