Latin American Philosophy, its Non-Existence, its Folklorism, and its Critical Sense

Abstract

This article critically examines three key aspects of the debate on Latin American philosophy: its alleged nonexistence according to the philosophical canon of the “First World,” the folkloristic tendencies present in certain regional discourses, and the possibility of constructing a critical and anti-Eurocentric Latin American philosophy. Methodologically, it is a theoretical-critical essay, grounded in conceptual analysis, historical reflection and dialogue with thinkers such as Bolívar Echeverría, Marx and Wallerstein. The main objective is to define what Latin American philosophy can be from a critical standpoint, challenging hegemonic discourses that render the region philosophically invisible while also questioning essentialist or folkloristic approaches that reduce philosophical reflection to idealized notions of cultural origin. Instead, the author proposes a framework that recognizes the historical and material conditions of Latin America within the transnational capitalist system, particularly the structural tension between production and social reproduction. The scope of the article is to rethink the foundations of a rigorous Latin American philosophy, rooted in the critique of domination, in the understanding of capitalist modernity from the periphery and in the search for possible historical alternatives. It also develops the notion of ant-like praxis, a form of everyday resistance to capitalist valorization tied to a Latin American critical ethos. The article concludes that Latin American philosophy should operate between universal human concerns and the specificities of peripheral life-worlds, articulating a mode of thought capable of revealing, resisting and transforming conditions of domination.