Ignacio ellacuría: A critical theory from Latin America

Ignacio Ellacuría (1934-1989) is one of the most important figures of the Latin American Theology and Philosophy of Liberation. The present paper treats his philosophical-political thought, intending to make clear his ideas concerning the foundations of a theory of critical ambition, from the perspective of the historical and social-political situation in Latin America. It deals with his reflections on the attitude and commitment which define the critical theorist’s position, with the notion of immanent critique, with the concept of historization and with the adoption of “the place” that, according to Ellacuría, “gives truth” in a global and plural framework. These reflections constitute relevant elements in order to rethink the normative grounds of any critical theory, beyond the limitations of more recent representatives of this theoretical tradition. In fact, both J. Habermas’s and A. Honneth’s theoretical perspectives are fixed on the context of the so-called first world, which has problematical consequences for their thinking about global problems. Ellacuría’s starting point however is the awareness of the centrality of the reflexion about the place in a geopolitical framework, from which a critical theory must confront the problems of global reality.