Enrique Dussel

Enrique Dussel (1934 to 2023) was an Argentine-Mexican philosopher, historian and theologian, and one of the leading figures of the philosophy of liberation, alongside Rodolfo Kusch, Arturo Roig and Leopoldo Zea. Born in La Paz, Mendoza, he studied philosophy in Mendoza, then took doctorates at Madrid and the Sorbonne and studied theology in Paris and Munster. After returning to Argentina in 1969 he was influenced by dependency theory and the writings of Emmanuel Levinas. Facing threats and the bombing of his house before the military dictatorship, he went into exile in Mexico in 1975 and taught at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He wrote around fifty books on ethics, political economy, theology, history and modernity, critiqued postmodernity in favor of what he called transmodernity, and served as interim rector of the Autonomous University of Mexico City from 2013 to 2014. His philosophy criticizes colonialism, imperialism, racism and sexism from the experience of the global periphery.