Enrique Dussel's Ethics of Liberation

Enrique Dussel’s Ethics of Liberation “Felicito y agradezco el tiempo de su vida que Frederick Mills se ha tomado en introducir una flosofía elaborada en el desconocido Sur global, como práctica de un diálogo Norte-Sur, que vaya descolonizando la flosofía eurocéntrica y la abra al horizonte mundial que está lentamente surgiendo en nuestro planeta glo- balizado, que enfrenta el riesgo de un eminente suicidio colectivo ecológico de la modernidad.” —Enrique Dussel, Ciudad de México “Frederick Mills’s Enrique Dussel’s Ethics of Liberation: An Introduction is a very clearly written, comprehensive presentation of the ethics of liberation philosopher Enrique Dussel. Mills provides a biography of Dussel and expounds his work, dealing with its Levinasian origins, the analectical methodology, the basic liberation principles of his monumental Ética de la Liberación, the implications of Dussel’s corpus for politics and economics, and its potential for the development of a planetary humanism. Mills is thoroughly acquainted with the massive litera- ture on liberation philosophy, and he never loses sight of the victims of Western instrumental rationality on behalf of whom this work, as well as Dussel’s philosophy of liberation, is written.” —Michael Barber, author of Ethical Hermeneutics: Rationality in Enrique Dussel’s Philosophy of Liberation (1998) “Dr. Frederick Mills’s new work, Enrique Dussel’s Ethics of Liberation, is a phil- osophically masterful exploration of, and lucidly insightful commentary on the work of a Latin American thinker who is possibly the most distinguished living philosopher of liberation. Focusing radical humanist and liberatory ethics, MIlls’s book shows not only penetrating insight. It exudes a certain spirit which reveals Mills as a kindred spirit of Dussel sharing a common vision of a liberated life in a community of freedom which embraces every man, woman and child on earth.” —Robert E. Birt, editor/author of The Liberatory Thought of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Critical Essays on the Philosopher King “Mills has accomplished a major feat in not only making Dussel’s critically important work more accessible to a broader audience, but also in breaking it down in such a way that it can readily be taken up as a tool for today’s most pressing social and ecological struggles. This contribution matches the urgency of the times we are living through.” —Christina M. Schiavoni, co-editor of The Politics of Food Sovereignty: Concept, Practice & Social Movements Frederick B. Mills Enrique Dussel’s Ethics of Liberation An Introduction Frederick B. Mills Bowie State University Bowie, MD, USA ISBN 978-3-319-94549-1 ISBN 978-3-319-94550-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94550-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946168 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Cover image: Emma Giné Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This monograph is dedicated to the memory of Honduran Indigenous environmental and human rights activist Berta Cáceres who was assassinated in her home on March 3, 2016 for her attempts to stop the building of a hydroelectric dam on a river sacred to the Lenca people. Berta Cáceres Vive! PREFACE This monograph aims to make basic concepts in Enrique Dussel’s ethics of liberation more accessible to English language readers. Dussel’s infuence has been felt in the Global South for more than fve decades, but his voice is still not suffciently heard north of the Rio Grande. By reaching a broader audience, I seek to contribute to the dissemination of Dussel’s principled defense of human life and the biosphere at a time when both are threatened with catastrophe by the ravages of Western instrumental rationality.1 I intend, in particular, to articulate Dussel’s analectic method and show how the ethical principles developed in his magnum opus, Ethics of Liberation in the Age of Globalization and Exclusion (1998/2013), form the basis of norms in the economic and political felds. I argue that these norms provide a moral compass for those committed to transforming the prevailing system and advancing a planetary humanism. My engagement with Dussel’s thought is inspired by the struggle of oppressed peoples and their allies against domination by globalizing corporate capital. Unlike armchair musings on the human condition, Dussel’s humanism challenges us to take co-responsibility for the victims 1I use the term “Western instrumental rationalism,” following Alejandro A. Vallega (2014), to mean: “the kind of thinking that accompanies the unfolding of capitalism, colo- nialism, globalization, and the reduction of all rational means and ends to production of wealth, which means the ultimate commodifcation of senses of existence and of intersub- jectivity” (3). vii viii PREFACE of the prevailing system and to urgently address the ongoing assault on the earth’s ecosystems. The assumption of this co-responsibility inevita- bly involves us in reaching out to a diversity of communities, crossing national as well as cultural boundaries. As part of this effort, the philosophy of liberation movement has been promoting an intercultural philo- sophical dialogue based on the premise that a new, pluriversal world, one that affrms the production, reproduction, and growth of all human life in community and in harmony with the biosphere, is not only empirically and technically possible, but also ethically necessary. Although the philosophy of liberation, in a sense, transcends any particular ethos, it has been ever conscious of its cultural, regional and historical origins. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Latin American and Caribbean intellectuals from a variety of disciplines were intensely engaged in an effort to develop a decolonized philosophy, sociology, and historiography that takes the lived experience of the popular sectors and Original peoples of the region, rather than Eurocentric narratives, as the focal point of reference.2 The Cuban revolution, national liberation movements, and electoral victories of several progressive governments in the region, demonstrated it was possible for the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean to challenge entrenched oligarchic interests despite the formidable setbacks imposed by US hegemony in the region. While the philosophy of liberation has not been a homogeneous doctrine, nor the work of a single person or school, there is no doubt Dussel has been its most prominent fgure, having systematized many of the ideas now associated with this current in Latin American philosophy. Today his liberatory message is relevant to the efforts of progressive forces around the world to challenge the ideology of global corporate capital and any other system that would instrumentalize human life and the earth’s vulnerable ecosystems. This is a philosophy for our age. Dussel’s ethics of liberation, which takes solidarity with the victims of Western instrumental rationality as its point of departure, articulates three universal ethical principles. In this monograph, I intend to provide the basic conceptual framework and methodology by means of which these principles are grounded, mutually condition each other and form the basis of norms for the critique and transformation of the political and economic felds. 2For a brief historical overview of the philosophy of liberation movement, see Galindo et al. (2011). Preface ix At frst approximation, the material ethical principle expresses the obligation to produce and reproduce human life in community in a man- ner that is in harmony with the biosphere. The formal principle requires the material principle be pursued by means of symmetrical democratic procedures. And the feasibility principle limits the outcome of delibera- tion to achievable policies and practices. None of these universal ethical principles is reducible to one only principle, nor can any one principle alone guide a liberatory project unless it conditions and is conditioned by the others. If we have democratic institutions that do not take into account the imperative to meet basic human needs and respect the earth’s biosphere, we violate the material principle and thereby also undermine the very conditions, in the long run, that make any human acts or institutions possible. And, if we blindly pursue what is technically feasible on behalf of capital accumulation or any other totalizing system, we are likely to violate both the material and formal principles. We already know the dire consequences of leaving technical feasibility with- out a moral compass. When technical feasibility was joined to national socialism during the last century, millions were deported to death camps by means of technically effcient bureaucracy and machinery.

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