Latin American Social and Political Thought: A Historical and Analytical Perspective

Latin American thinkers have been especially concerned with the relation between the subcontinent and the West, in particular with modernity, since the nineteenth century (Zéa 1976). To a great extent the problem remains, since the peculiar position of ‘Latin’ America – a term problematic in itself – has always been ambiguous: it emerged with Western expansion and is tied to the West in many ways, without being really Western. A question asked by some authors has been also, conversely, how Latin America has been important to the development, institutions and imaginary of modern Europe (Dussel 1996 [1993], 2008 [2006]; Aguilar Rivera 2000).