Philosophy of Liberation

Abstract

Enrique Dussel has died. The person, not his philosophy. Enrique Dussel is one of the most influential Latin American philosophers in the world. It is no surprise that one of the most “Latin American” philosophers (this adjective is used as either contempt or pride, depending on who is speaking) is also one of the most cosmopolitan, due to the breadth of his intellectual sources and his impact on non-Latin American audiences.

Unlike those who place the origin of philosophy, and especially political philosophy, in Greece, he placed it in the sources of Greek philosophy: the Semitic world, that of the heirs of the biblical character Shem, which includes much of the cultural world that today are the Arab countries of the Middle East, Israel, and North Africa.

Likewise, Dussel, like other authors, have argued that philosophy does not arise from a single Greek miracle, but from many miracles, dispersed culturally and geographically, which justifies the existence of authentic philosophies from different sources. He also declared himself inspired by Amerindian thought.

Dussel leaves us with a paradox that is also a lesson: a philosophy can be cosmopolitan and, at the same time, rooted in the cultural tradition of a continent or a nation; a philosophy can be technical in its structure and language and, at the same time, reach educated readers beyond the scholars of the discipline.