Ricardo Espinoza Lolas and the Concept of Nosotros. From Peculiar Characteristic of Ibero-American Philosophy to Global Political Subjectivity

Abstract

Since the second half of the 20th century, the concept of “we” (we other) has characterised the reflection about Ibero-American identity, culture and philosophy. The reconstruction of the intellectual trajectory that led to the maturation of the analysis of this concept within the works of Ricardo Espinoza Lolas shows us how this category of South American thought, despite its close link with the history of the continent, is universalisable and therefore usable as a philosophical paradigm on a global scale. Through the comparison and development of the interpretations of the word “we” given by Juan Carlos Scannone and Arturo Andrés Roig, and that offered by Espinoza, the scope of a proposal emerges that, on the one hand shows the historical-philosophical value of Ibero-American thought and its role within a history of philosophy understood no longer in a merely Eurocentric and ideological sense, but in its real and material development, on the other the functionality of a concept that becomes a device of deactivation of the current global capitalist order of Espinoza’s theses.