The controversy Salazar Bondy - Leopoldo Zea

From philosophy of domination to philosophy of liberation

Abstract

In 1968, Augusto Salazar Bondy published his book ¿Existe una filosofía de nuestra América? (Is there a philosophy of our America?) which questions the existence of an authentic Hispano-American philosophy; he argues that the obstacle to this lies in the situation of dependence in which Hispano-America finds itself, since it has not overcome its colonial state in relation to the central countries, neither economically nor philosophically. In contrast, Leopoldo Zea replied that Latin American philosophy had been developing since the sixteenth century and that the question of authenticity had to do with the nature of certain assertions that affirmed domination; he thus questioned some Western philosophical approaches. He also pointed out the weakness of some of Salazar's approaches, such as the idea of developing a philosophy from scratch, which would mean ignoring the historical reality of Latin America and its connection with the construction of philosophy. The philosophy of liberation -in its analectic orientation, mainly in Scannone and Dussel- recognized in Salazar Bondy the discovery of a philosophy of domination, which is why it is the condition of possibility for the development of a philosophy of liberation. The latter understood the need to regain the philosophical principles that supported this domination and found them in the Hellenic tradition. As an alternative, philosophy of liberation proposed critical concepts that came from the Semitic tradition and proved to be crucial both for criticizing the dominant philosophy and for proposing a philosophical alternative. This applies to the terms totality, exteriority, the other, analectics, people. The present article aims at a re-evaluation of the above-mentioned controversy and assumes that it meant a re-foundation of Latin American philosophy mainly by the liberation philosophy, because it formulated the liberation turn, which is also the key to understanding the decolonial turn, whose influence today is undeniable.