Abstract

We come to the end of this Critical World History to discover what Dussel sees as bringing critical political reflection up to date. In this sense, the entire journey that is made throughout this work only takes on its true dimension in the final section, with a philosophy that seeks the critical voice of the people. This culminates in political thought of the Zapatistas that emerged at the end of the 20th century with the awareness of inaugurating a new moment in the history of world politics. Dussel places the origin of the Philosophy of Liberation in that Argentine decade between 1966 and 1976. Many things have happened since then, and the Philosophy of Liberation has received continuous attacks that have tried to question its coherence and political commitment, as well as to dismiss its relevance not only in the history of Latin American philosophy, but also worldwide. This essay tries to respond to these attacks and show how it is that thought, born in a political situation not without contradictions, may flourish due to its ability to articulate historical reality and a political commitment to the denied and excluded. Philosophy, when it is true philosophy, thinks about concrete reality. Therefore the critique of philosophy, Dussel tells us, must be done, not from thought, but from reality. In that sense, reality is the beginning and the end, the orientation and the course.