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Enrique Dussel
EnriqueDussel.jpg
Dussel in 2009
Born
Enrique Domingo Dussel

(1934-12-24)24 December 1934
La Paz, Mendoza, Argentina
Died 5 November 2023(2023-11-05) (aged 88)
Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality
  • Argentina
  • Mexico
Education
Spouse(s) Johanna Peters
Era 20th-century philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School Continental philosophy, theology of liberation, Marxism
Institutions
Main interests
Philosophy of liberation, ethics, political economy, theology, history
Notable ideas
Transmodernism

Enrique Domingo Dussel Ambrosini (24 December 1934 – 5 November 2023) was an Argentine-Mexican academic, philosopher, historian and theologian. He served as the interim rector of the Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México from 2013 to 2014.

Life and career

Enrique Dussel was born on 24 December 1934 in La Paz, Mendoza. He studied at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza from 1953 to 1957, receiving an undergraduate degree in philosophy, after which he travelled to Europe to continue his studies. He then received a doctorate from the Complutense University of Madrid, a doctorate in history from the Sorbonne in Paris, and an undergraduate degree in theology obtained through studies in Paris and Münster. Between 1959 and 1961 he lived in Israel learning Arabic and Hebrew and working manual jobs at a cooperative led by French Jesuit Paul Gauthier, who would go on to influence Dussel and his view of liberation theology. He returned to Argentina in 1969 and became influenced by the dependency theory and the writings of Emmanuel Levinas, both of which were to become major influences on his thinking. In the events leading up to the military dictatorship in Argentina of 1976–1983, he was increasingly the target of violence, including death threats, the bombing of his house, and sacking from the university. He escaped to Mexico in 1975 as a political exile, where he continued his work as a professor of philosophy at the Iztapalapa campus of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Autonomous Metropolitan University, UAM) and in a teaching position at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM).

Dussel received an honorary doctorate from the University of Fribourg in 1981, the University of San Andrés in 1995, the University of Buenos Aires in 2012, the Universidad Santo Tomás in 2015, the National University of San Martín in 2015, and the University of Chile in 2017. He had produced an expansive body of work numbering some forty books on a range of subjects including the philosophy of liberation, ethics, political economy, theology, history and modernity/postmodernity. Much of his work is so far only limitedly available in English, and some contend that his work has not received the broader attention it warrants.

Additionally, he was a visiting professor for one semester at Frankfurt University, Notre Dame University, California State University, Los Angeles, Union Theological Seminary (a Protestant seminary), Loyola University Chicago, Vanderbilt University, Duke University, Harvard University, and others. In March 2013 he was named the interim rector of the Autonomous University of Mexico City for a period of one year.

Dussel maintained dialogue with philosophers such as Karl-Otto Apel, Gianni Vattimo, Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty and Emmanuel Lévinas Author of more than 50 books, his thoughts cover many themes including: theology, politics, philosophy, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and ontology. He was a critic of postmodernity, preferring instead the term "transmodernity."

Dussel died on 5 November 2023, at the age of 88.

Philosophy of liberation

Enrique Dussel is one of the primary figures along with others such as Rodolfo Kusch, Arturo Roig, and Leopoldo Zea, in the philosophical movement referred to as the Philosophy of Liberation. The philosophy of liberation seeks to critique structures of colonialism, imperialism, globalization, racism, and sexism.

See also

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