Enrique Dussel has developed a sweeping philosophical critique of the eurocentricity of Western habits of thought and action, with the aim of articulating an ‘ethics of liberation’ that takes the part distinctively of ‘the victims’ of the world system. The heart of Dussel’s effort is an ostensibly new method, ‘analectic’ or ‘anadialectic,’ which comes about through the ‘revelation’ of the other, and goes beyond the self-enclosure that, Dussel asserts, typifies dialectic in Western ontology. Thus, he takes his position to have (...) gone beyond ontology: it is a trans-ontology, a genuine meta-physics. I question whether analectic does go beyond Western thinking of being, and propose an ontological critique that is classically Western or, as I would prefer to say, historically Western yet (along with its analogues in other philosophical traditions) classically relevant even in our ‘age of globalization and exclusion.’. (shrink)

Leopoldo Zea contribuyó a un profundo replantamiento del significado de la identidad y su sentido filosófico, trabajando sobre temas que hacen al sentido del filosofar mismo, tales como: si hacer filosofía supone que quien filosofa debe abstraerse de su contexto social y cultural; si así fuera, entonces ¿cuál sería el sentido de la verdad?, específicamente de las pretensiones de verdad que tienen que ver con la cultura, la política, la crítica social e historia. ¿Qué quiere decir "identidad" en la cultura, (...) la sociedad y la política, así como en formaciones sociales en flujo y movimiento histórico? ¿Cuál es la relación del pensamiento y la filosofía latinoamericanos con el filosofar y el pensamiento crítico de otras regiones? No obstante, desde sus primeros ensayos, donde se asocia el significado de cultura con la reflexión de los intelectuales sobre la cultura, hasta los últimos, su pensamiento se muestra como elitista y occidentalista. La América indígena no parece tener más que una posición puramente circunstancial y no definitoria de lo latinoamericano. Se plantea, pues, una paradoja sobre la que el presente ensayo intenta echar luz.Leopoldo Zea contributed to a deep revision of the concept of identity and its philosophical meaning, working on topics that are on the base of the philosophical thinking itself: is it assumed that he who philosophizes should detach himself from his social and cultural context?; and if that is so, what would be the meaning of truth, especially in relation to culture, politics, social criticism, and history? What is the meaning of "identity" as regards culture, society, and politics, as well as social groups flow and historical movement? What is the relation between Latin American philosophy and critical thinking, and philosophy and critical thinking of other regions? Nonetheless, right from his early essays, where he relates culture with the reflection about culture made by intellectuals, to the last ones, Zea's thinking appears as elitist and Occidental. The indigenous America seems to be merely circumstantial and non definitive regarding Latin America. This fact poses a paradox over which this essay intends to shed some light. (shrink)