Liberation Philosophy/Post-Continental Philosophy

*Winner of the American Philosophical Association's 2020 Essay Prize in Latin American Thought*

This essay offers a novel account of the secularity of Latin American liberation philosophy. It challenges the accepted notion that liberation philosophy applies the methods and approaches of Latin American liberation theology to the philosophical arena, thus putting liberation theology on secular grounds. While this formulation is true insofar as liberation philosophy is not bound by the hermeneutics of any particular religious tradition, this formulation could be misconstrued given that liberation philosophy does not premise such secularization in an undialectical understanding of secularity as secularism that disavows religion. Rather, liberation philosophy’s secularity is dialectical in that it requires constant engagement with re-ligion, not in the hermeneutics of any specific tradition but with “the traditional question of the Absolute.” Due to this often-misunderstood element of liberation philosophy, it has frequently been “ghettoized and relegated to the ‘safe’ area of theological studies,” as Eduardo Mendieta argues. However, I contend that liberation philosophy’s secular grounds offer an original contribution to philosophy as a decolonial and postsecularist liberation philosophy, one that conceives of secularism as an aspect of coloniality to be overcome, an obstacle rather than a benefit for Latin American philosophers seeking to gain a better understanding of our historical conditions.

From Edward S. Casey, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Stony Brook University:
"This singular book puts a number of leading figures in philosophy into conversation with each other -- and with the author himself, who manages skillfully to create a true theatricum philosophicum in which complex ideas come alive and enter into intense dialogue. . . . Altared Ground is an extended meditation on the ground of ethics and (by implication and sometimes expressly) politics" (from "The Ethics of the Face to Face Encounter: Schroeder, Levinas, and the Glance," The Pluralist [Spring 2006]: 73-97).


From Kelly Oliver, W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University:
"Schroeder not only elaborates on the relationship between Levinas's thought and the writings of other philosophers, but also powerfully rereads the history of Western philosophy. Beautifully combining scholarship and creativity, Schroeder goes beyond Levinas's alternatives to traditional theories of the self to suggest a notion of subjectivity that is not grounded in violence. His analysis of intersubjective violence is sustained and intricate, and provides a significant contribution to Continental ethics."

As a philosophical paradigm, differential heterogenesis offers us a novel descriptive vantage with which to inscribe Deleuze's virtuality within the terrain of "differential becoming," conjugating "pure saliences" so as to parse economies, microhistories, insurgencies, and epistemological evolutionary processes that can be conceived of independently from their representational form. Unlike Gestalt theory's oppositional constructions, the advantage of this aperture is that it posits a dynamic context to both media and its analysis, rendering them functionally tractable and set in relation to other objects , rather than as sedentary identities. Surveying the genealogy of differential heterogenesis with particular interest in the legacy of Lautman's dialectic, I make the case for a reading of the Deleuzean virtual that departs from an event-oriented approach, galvanizing Sarti and Citti's dynamic a priori vis-à-vis Deleuze's philosophy of difference. Specifically, I posit differential heterogenesis as frame with which to examine our contemporaneous epistemic shift as it relates to multi-scalar computational modeling while paying particular attention to neuro-inferential modes of inductive learning and homologous cognitive architecture. Carving a bricolage between Mark Wilson's work on the "greediness of scales" and Deleuze's "scales of reality", this project threads between static ecologies and active externalism vis-à-vis endocentric frames of reference and syntactical scaffolding.

Nietzsche ist mit dem 1887 erschienenen V. Buch der Fröhlichen Wissenschaft sein reifstes Aphorismen-Werk gelungen. Es handelt von der Heiterkeit der Zwischenzeit, in der die Befreiung des Geistes von Jahrtausende alten Vorurteilen gelingt, bis die von der Tragödie des Nihilismus erreicht werden, die zu ihrer Orientierung weiterhin feste Bindungen nötig haben. Viele der 40 + 1 Aphorismen gehören zu den prominentesten in Nietzsches Werk. Hier werden sie methodisch in ihren internen und externen Kontexten und ihrer stets aussagekräftigen schriftstellerischen Form erschlossen. Dabei werden neue Tiefen in Nietzsches Philosophie sichtbar.

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.'

This article introduces the philosophical thought of Ignacio Ellacuría SJ who is one of the most important proponents of Latin American philosophy of liberation. He has developed his „philosophy of historical reality“ by adapting creatively the philosophy of Xavier Zubiri. A sketch of his understanding
of philosophy as way of life is followed by a presentation of his remarks on historical reality as an object of philosophy. This  sketch provides the basis for discussing his understanding of freedom and liberation and of the liberating task of philosophy.  As conclusion, some possibilities of reception in German or European context are mentioned. 

En este artículo se buscan algún punto de encuentro entre las epistemologías del Sur y el pensamiento de la liberación de Ignacio Ellacuría, referido al ámbito del conocimiento, desarrollado principalmente en el concepto de logos histórico. Para esto, se desarrollan cuatro temas: crítica a la Modernidad; la función de la filosofía o epistemología; la geopolítica del conocimiento; y la relación teoría y praxis.

Interview with Dr. Enrique Dussel, Argentinian-Mexican philosopher, one of the greatest references of Latin American thought in the world. His extensive work covers more than 50 books, having been translated into the most diverse languages. Symbol of the committed thinker, his trajectory combines originality and theoretical depth with critical praxis. His works can be downloaded for free at: https://enriquedussel.com /// Entrevistamos al Dr. Enrique Dussel, filósofo argentino-mexicano, uno de los máximos referentes del pensamiento latinoamericano en el mundo. Su extensa obra abarca más de 50 libros, habiendo sido traducido a las más diversas lenguas. Símbolo del pensador comprometido, su trayectoria conjuga originalidad y profundidad teórica con praxis crítica. Sus obras pueden descargarse gratuitamente en: https://enriquedussel.com /// Entrevistamos ao Dr. Enrique Dussel, filósofo argentino-mexicano, uma das maiores referências do pensamento latinoamericano no mundo. Sua extensa obra abarca mais de 50 livros, tendo sido traduzido às mais diversas línguas. Símbolo do pensamento engajado, sua trajectoria conjuga originalidade e profundidade teórica com práxis crítica. Suas obras podem ser acessadas gratuitamente em: https://enriquedussel.com

In this essay I return to the difficult relation between the ethics and politics of Emmanuel Levinas through his critique of "paganism" and "primitivism." I argue that Levinas' central philosophical claims are fundamentally constituted by his problematic conceptions of so-called primitive life. Thus unlike current scholarship which has tried to put a wedge between Levinas' ethics and his politics (a wedge I aim to refute in the beginning of the essay), I suggest that one way to make Levinas' contributions meaningful in a global world is to unhinge the philosophy from the beginning. Building on the dialogue between Levinas and Derrida, as well as contemporary anthropology, I argue that we can make an orginary agnostic moment prior to his work, which might allow us to think through a plurality of ethical subjectivities.

El artículo analiza la quinta sección del primer tomo de "Política de la liberación" de Enrique Dussel. Se destacta el abordaje decolonial y no eurocéntrico de China, el Imperio otomano y el Renacimiento. Asimismo, se ofrece una serie de cuestionamientos sobre la posibilidad de una política de la liberación no especista.

In Zeiten der Globalisierung und der Begegnung verschiedener Kulturen und Zivilisationen stellt sich die Frage nach dem universellen oder kontextuellen Charakter philosophischer Aussagen in neuer Schärfe. Wie insbesondere die Bemühungen einer interkulturellen Philosophie um die Verbindung der Kontext- und Kulturabhängigkeit jedes philosophischen Denkens mit dessen Streben nach Allgemeingültigkeit zeigen, kann diese Spannung nicht einfach einseitig aufgelöst werden.
In dieser Arbeit wird das Verhältnis von Kontextualität und Universalität am Beispiel zweier konkreter politischer Philosophen untersucht: Zum einen wird der sich u.a. im Menschenbild niederschlagende kontextualistische Charakter des Ansatzes John Rawls’ herausgearbeitet, der als Beispiel des politischen Liberalismus und einer (weitgehend) universalistisch argumentierenden Position dient. Zum anderen wird mit Ignacio Ellacuría ein Vertreter der lateinamerikanischen Befreiungsphilosophie in den Blick genommen, der die eigene Kontextualität nicht nur auswies, sondern als Voraussetzung einer authentischen Philosophie ansah, ohne die diese nicht universal sein könne.
Auf dieser Grundlage wird das von interkulturellen Philosophen vertretene Verständnis von Universalität als einer „Universalität als Solidarität bzw. regulative Idee“ vertieft und weiter ausgeführt.

This is a transliteration of Herbert Guenther's commentary on the Guhyagarbha Tantra. Being which is no thingness is primordial ground awareness. This awareness manifest compelling forces and these archetypical compelling forces are understood to be deities and dakinis. These formulated energies are as much feelings as experienced apparitions. These aesthetic archetypical experiences constitute an essential aspect of human life. Human consciousness itself is a manifestation of Beings manifestation. These luminous energies manifest without losing their manifestation or indivisibility with the cosmic universe and are a source of infinite possibilities of sensuous disclosure and experience.

There is similarity of the theme of becoming self liberated through the manifestation of appearance in both dzogchen and Heideggarian phenomenology. There is this similarity between the dzogchen meditative awareness tradition as articulated by the 14 th century Tibetan master Longchenpa and the phenomenologist of 20th century philosophy Martin Heidegger.

Mit seinem umfangreichen und anspruchsvollen Werk zählt der spanisch-salvadorianische Philosophen und -theologe Ignacio Ellacuría (1930-1989) zu den bedeutendsten und originellsten Vertretern einer lateinamerikanischen Philosophie und Theologie der Befreiung. Sein umfangreiches politisches Engagement in El Salvador - das letztlich zu seiner Ermordung führte - zeigt deutlich den Ernst und die politische Verpflichtung, die er mit einem authentischen philosophischen Bemühen in der jeweiligen soziohistorischen Situation verbunden sieht.

Das vorliegende Buch will eine Einführung in die Philosophie Ignacio Ellacurías sein, die eine kreative Weiterführung der Philosophie des baskischen Philosophen Xavier Zubiri (1898-1983) ist und schlagwortartig als ›Philosophie der geschichtlichen Wirklichkeit‹ bezeichnet werden kann. Mit Zubiri kritisiert er (fast) die gesamte westeuropäische philosophische Tradition; er betont die Bedeutung der jeweiligen geschichtlichen Realität für eine Philosophie, was ihn im lateinamerikanischen Kontext eine auf eine allgemeine und universale Befreiung hin ausgerichtete Philosophie entwickeln läßt.

Darüber hinaus soll deutlich werden, wie Ellacurías Philosophie nicht nur als inhärent interkulturelle Philosophie aufgefaßt werden kann, sondern auch, welchen wertvollen Beitrag er für eine Klärung grundlegender Fragestellungen der interkulturellen Philosophie wie der Verhältnisbestimmung von Kontextualität und Universalität, der prinzipiellen Begründung der Ablehnung eines jeglichen Zentrismus u.ä. leisten kann.