The philosophy of liberation in the face of the post-modernity debate in Latin American studies

Abstract

This article takes a critical look at the current situation of studies on "Latin American thought" in Latin America and, mainly, in the United States. The first two sections analyze the general background of Latin American thought and the developments of European critical thinking in recent decades, particularly in relation to the dispute over modernity and post-modernity. The third section offers a recapitulation of Latin American "philosophy of liberation", in the general framework of critical thought of the postcolonial periphery, the so-called Subaltern Studies. It gives an account of thinkers and scholars of thought from the entire periphery (Africa, Asia, Latin America) such as Ranajit Guha, Homi Bahbha, etc. The fourth and fifth sections present some replies to North American scholars and critics (some of them of Latin origin), of Latin American thought and philosophy of liberation. In the face of radically pluralistic and anti-foundationist, "post-modernist" positions, the emphasis is on the inalienable character of a critical rationality capable of questioning the current world order from the point of view of the periphery and marginalization.