Epistemological resistances and the search for alternatives to modernity in intellectual history

The violence of modernity has led to epistemological resistances around the world and the search for alternative ways of reconstructing philosophy. Among the Frankfurt School and early Kyoto School thinkers, for instance, the problem of modernity is framed as an excess of objective rationality, but among the decolonial thinkers of Latin America, the problem is conceptualized as the very myth of modernity itself that has legitimized the colonization and exclusion of non-Europeans. In the search for alternatives modernities, the Kyoto School and Latin American philosophy agree to a vision of inter-civilizational dialogue, which amounts to an engagement of alterity or differences, whereas with the Frankfurt School, albeit struggles to find consensus on how to overcome modernity, aims to merely preclude the problem of reproducing the impulses toward the domination of oneself and others. Nonetheless, all these paradigms have a theoretical point of convergence: that is, since we are all participants of modernity, we are both victims and executioners of its violence, and thus compelled to negate it. This article will discuss how the violence of modernity is experienced, theorized, and then challenged around different continents in order to make visible not just how the violence of modernity is reproduced in different ways but to force ourselves to engage in self-critique in the pursuit to make explicit our own assumptions that repeats the violence of modernity.

Filosofía y vocación en el pensamiento fenomenológico de Julia Valentina Iribarne

Después de la evocación de un encuentro con J. Iribarne, el ensayo intenta, primero, hacer una ‘lectura del sentido de la lectura’ que Iribarne hace de la fenomenología husserliana —la fenomenología como sistema. En un segundo momento se estudiará la teoría de la intersubjetividad en la obra de J. Iribarne (sec. 2) y la ética (sec. 3) como una ciencia fundada en esa teoría. El alcance último de lo dicho en estas páginas es mostrar la coherencia entre el empeño filosófico de J. Iribarne y las metas vitales y vocacionales de la filosofía husserliana, por tanto, mostrar que el esfuerzo de ver la fenomenología como una filosofía de una vida trascendental arraigada en la existencia humana es una preocupación propia de la fenomenología trascendental, y su exposición (en nuestra lengua) es parte del valioso legado de Julia Iribarne a la filosofía iberoamericana.Through a remembrance of a meeting with J. Iribarne, this paper aims to make a “reading of Iribarne’s vision” of Husserl’s phenomenology —phenomenology as a system—, following with a study of the theory of inter-subjectivity in Iribarne’s work (sec. 2), and the place of ethics as a science founded in this theory (sec. 3). The final purpose is to demonstrate the consistency that lies within Iribarne’s philosophical efforts and Husserl’s philosophical goals throughout his life and career, in order to assert that the practice of phenomenology as a philosophy of life and a transcendental life rooted in human existence itself is a concern of transcendental phenomenology —for this exposure (in Spanish) forms part of Julia Iribarne’s valuable legacy to Latin American philosophy.

Gloria Anzaldúa’s Mexican Genealogy: From Pelados and Pachucos to New Mestizas

This essay examines Gloria Anzaldúa’s critical appropriation of two Mexican philosophers in the writing of Borderlands/La Frontera: Samuel Ramos and Octavio Paz. We argue that although neither of these authors is cited in her seminal work, Anzaldúa had them both in mind through the writing process and that their ideas are present in the text itself. Through a genealogical reading of Borderlands/La Frontera, and aided by archival research, we demonstrate how Anzaldúa’s philosophical vision of the “new mestiza” is a critical continuation of the broader tradition known as la filosofía de lo mexicano, which flourished during a golden age of Mexican philosophy (1910–1960). Our aim is to open new directions in Latinx and Latin American philosophy by presenting Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera as a profound scholarly encounter with two classic works of Mexican philosophy, Ramos’ Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico and Paz’s The Labyrinth of Solitude.

Exordio: Towards a Hermeneutics of Liberation

Liberatory thought in Latin American philosophy leads to the question of the reinterpretation of historical time consciousness. In the following pages I first introduce the challenge as articulated out of Latin American thought, particularly with reference to Enrique Dussel and Aníbal Quijano, and then I develop a reinterpretation of historical time consciousness in its happening as understood through Hans-Georg Gadamer’s discussion of effected historical consciousness (Wirkungsgeschichtliches Bewußtsein) in Truth and Method. As already marked by this trajectory, this essay is not comparative, but, through a dialogue with these thinkers, seeks to rethink the temporalizing-historical movement that is historical consciousness as a possible path to engaging in and understanding liberatory philosophy.

Latino Philosophy

Latino philosophy and Latin American philosophy, in spite of their close relation, are taking different paths on foundational questions about their own significance, prospects, and even existence. Furthermore, Latino philosophy must continue to avoid two extreme positions that figure prominently in Latin American philosophy, radical skepticism and overconfident optimism. By resting on exceedingly narrow conceptions of the nature of this type of philosophy, neither of them can help to overcome the challenges facing these fields. But Latino philosophy may have a brighter future, provided it expands the use of reasoned argument beyond the issues discussed in this essay. Some concern the nature of Latino philosophy and its closest relatives. Others involve Latino philosophy’s contribution to solving a recurrent puzzle about which ethnic-group term (if any) is best for talking about US residents who are from the officially Spanish-speaking nations of Latin America by birth or ancestry.