Dubbed the “Hegel of Coyoacán,” referring to the Nahuatl name for a neighborhood in Mexico City, Enrique Dussel (1934-2023) produced an impressive body of work in dialogue with a wide range of philosophical, theological, and other voices across history and geography. Thinking from the context of Latin America, Dussel grounds his philosophy and ethics in the materiality of human beings, specifically those who are excluded from the world system of capitalist globalization, modernity, and Eurocentric epistemology. Critically engaging traditions from phenomenology and Critical Theory to pragmatism and communitarianism, Dussel consistently identifies how European and Anglophone philosophy, even in its progressive and radical voices, routinely fail to account for colonialism as a distinct, world-defining process, holding back their ability to authentically understand or philosophize about the realities of people outside their geographical contexts, the majority of the global population. For Dussel, philosophy must contribute to the liberation of oppressed people, dismantling systems of domination and contributing to material alternatives. This course explores two foundational texts in Dussel’s oeuvre, Philosophy of Liberation, published in 1977 shortly after his exile from Argentina to Mexico, and Ethics of Liberation, his magnum opus, both of which provide opportunities to also critically examine other philosophers including Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Charles Taylor, Emmanuel Levinas, Alisdair MacIntyre, and more.
122904/222904
Online Intensive
Dates TBA
Mondays and Wednesdays; 7-9pm ET
(MA-PhD, MWS)
Syllabus
To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. (Note that the first class for this course takes place on -). Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.