210034 LK BAK5: Theoriegeschichte und Theoriedebatten (2021W)

In first part of this course, we will establish a link between the liberal and emancipatory ideas of 17th and 18th century liberalism and the justification or rejection of European colonialism and expansion. We analyze the texts of enlightenment writers like Adam Smith, Rousseau, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In addition, the ambivalent ideas on colonialism of Karl Marx are examined.

In the second part of this reading course, the Latin American and Caribbean counter-speech, which partly refers to the above-mentioned European philosophers, will be critically analyzed.
We will look at the anti-imperial texts by Simón Bolívar and José Martí. In the twentieth century, we discuss the canonical texts of the Caribbean authors Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon who both will be important authors of the postcolonial discourse. Finally, we examine critically Leopoldo Zea's ideas on the emancipation of Latin American thought, the influence of positivism in Latin America, and the philosophy of liberation.