Devenires

What’s Left? La izquierda como “optimismo social”

Oliver Kozlarek — 2025-07-16

The left is in crisis. But the way we think about the left is also in crisis. The first objective of this article is to determine the origin of left-wing thought; it is assumed to reside in Enlightenment thought and, as Judith N. Shklar stated, in its “social optimism.” Another issue to be addressed is that of temporal orientation: although left-wing thought is still understood as projecting itself into the future, the question of its relation to the past must be raised today. This article will argue in favor of becoming aware of the achievements of left-wing movements, in whose defense left-wing thought and politics should be committed, because it is precisely these achievements that have been destroyed in the course of forty years of neoliberal offensive as well as in the current phase of authoritarian populism. Finally, we will ask what we are to make of current “left-wing” movements, which can be subsumed under terms such as “cultural left,” “lifestyle left,” “woke left,” or simply “aesthetic left”. We will also ask whether a left that goes back to Marx is necessarily an alternative to those. The underlying question is: What’s left?

From Marxism to Neo-Zapatism: the incalculable difference between what has been gained and what has been lost

David Pavón-Cuéllar — 2025-07-16

An assessment is made of the process that led from marxism to neo-zapatism in Mexico, between 1969 and 2023, through the history of the National Liberation Forces (FLN) and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). The movement from the FLN to the EZLN is interpreted as a logical development of the Marxist theoretical syllogism itself, leading to its practical Neo-Zapatista consequence. After reviewing the origin and development of these guerrilla organizations, their respective leaders, and their relationships with Marxism, the paper reconsiders all this in light of the ideological necessity of post-Marxism in the historical conjuncture of the post-Cold War. Then, through the discourse of the EZLN, the strategic shift from Marxism to Neo-Zapatism and the contradictions between Marxist theory and Neo-Zapatista practice are analyzed. Finally, discussing various opinions about the EZLN in relation to Marx's legacy, we reflect on the incalculable difference between what is gained and what is lost in moving from Marxism to Neo-Zapatism.

An Integrative Concept of Ideology

Iver A. Beltrán García — 2025-07-16

This article explores the possibility of an integrative concept of ideology through a comparative dialogue among the proposals of Leopoldo Zea, Luis Villoro, and Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez. The analysis centers on their conceptual convergences regarding theoretical activity, knowledge, science, philosophy, and the phenomenon of ideology, following the threads of their debate in the key texts. The research adopts an eclectic method, integrating diverse theoretical perspectives with logical rigor and respect for the original contexts, without eluding fundamental differences. The relevance of this study is threefold: first, it stimulates a critical dialogue between historically confronted philosophical currents (Latin Americanism, Analytical Philosophy, Marxism); second, it reveals significant points of convergence through a detailed examination; and last, it articulates a complex concept of ideology that is nourished by the confluence of contrasting visions.

Political ethics or normative politics

Jorge Zúñiga Martínez — 2025-07-16

This paper presents contributions by Luis Villoro and Enrique Dussel to philosophical political ethics. The text develops the philosophical foundation each author uses to justify his favored moral attitudes regarding political action and the political sphere. It also seeks to provide elements of contrast between these two positions and models of political ethics. In particular, it aims to show what political ethics consists on according to Villoro, and how this formulation of normative politics differs from Dussel’s. The paper also highlights fragments from these authors that could be overlooked or relegated as marginal but that, on the proposed reading, are key to understand what these authors seek when formulating their respective proposals.

Interpretation, critique and anthropology

David Ramos Castro — 2025-07-16

In this article I reflect about the notion of experience on the basis of some approaches of hermeneutics and Critical Theory, in order to, on the one hand, find points in common between them that justify combining interpretation and critique, and , on the other one, including sociocultural anthropology in the interpretation of modernity, on the other. Thus, by using a dialogue with Victor Turner's anthropology of experience and François Laplantine's modal anthropology, I propose a critical interpretation of modern experience as an experience of extramodernity.

Aporophobic affects as active violence

Arturo Aguirre Moreno — 2025-07-16

The article examines aporophobia as a phenomenon that connects affective and socio-structural dimensions within contemporary neoliberalism. Drawing on Adela Cortina’s notion of rejection toward the poor and Sianne Ngai’s concept of “ugly feelings,” it proposes a strategic articulation that combines normative and aesthetic-affective approaches. This combination enables the analysis of exclusionary logics alongside regimes of sensitivity that define the undesirability of certain bodies. Aporophobia emerges as a concept that reveals an affective modulation reinforcing forms of active violence, such as exclusion and spatial marginalization, directed at those deprived of social, symbolic, and political capital. Aporophobic affects, embedded in social structures, legitimize capitalist power by producing affective distances that sustain exclusion and segregation. The text offers an interdisciplinary analysis of this phenomenon, emphasizing its role in reproducing social hierarchies and maintaining the exclusion of impoverished groups. The proposal connects critical affect theory with contemporary approaches to poverty under neoliberal conditions, aiming to broaden interpretive frameworks. It also seeks to establish a conceptual foundation for future research on exclusion and its affective architecture, without abandoning its speculative dimension or its critical stance.

Jorge Dubatti (ed.) Artistas-investigadoras/es y producción de conocimiento desde la escena. Una filosofía de la praxis teatral,

Diana Padrón Castillo — 2025-07-16

Judith Butler, Who’s Afraid of Gender?, Estados Unidos de América, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024, 308 pp.

Eunice Yannin Huerta Arroyo — 2025-07-16

Guillermo Hurtado, Biografía de la verdad: ¿Cuándo dejó de importarnos la verdad y por qué deberíamos recuperarla?, México, Siglo XXI Editores, 2024, 142 pp.

Erving González Magaña — 2025-07-16

urgency of slowness

Eduardo Pellejero — 2025-07-16

This essay aims to address the diagnosis of the illness of our time, which, curiously, takes the form of a temporal pathology, and, at the same time, to explore the alternative of slowness (not merely as a modulation of speed, but as a virtue, pathos, and way of life).