Realism and Utopia in the Political Philosophy of Ignacio Ellacuría
In this paper, I address four main themes.
First, I examine the philosophical roots of Ellacuría’s “realismo histórico” in the
works of Hegel, Marx, and Zubiri. Influenced by these thinkers, Ellacuría endorsed a
“this worldly” metaphysics that describes a dynamic reality of evolving possibility
and potentiality. Ellacuría’s realist metaphysics entails a denial of any form of
metaphysical idealism that would posit some greater or deeper reality beyond this
world.
Secondly, I discuss the critical aims of Ellacuría’s political philosophy understood as
an extension of his historical realism. I explain how Ellacuría’s historical-political
realism can be used to reveal the distortions of wishful thinking, ideology, and
imposed identities.
Thirdly, I ask whether it’s possible to be a realist utopian? I examine Ellacuría’s
demand that we ‘hacerse cargo de la realidad’, and try to square this demand with
his rejection of idealism and ‘ideologized’ thinking. I interpret Ellacuría’s call to
‘hacerse cargo de la realidad’ as an invitation to give shape and structure to our
desire for reality to be ‘more real’. While often utopian in character, the work of
figuring out what we should wish for need not violate Ellacuría’s commitment to
historical realism. One should reject wishful thinking, but that doesn’t imply that
one should never wish for anything. Indeed, for Ellacuría, political philosophy
reaches its full potential only when it transforms into a ‘praxis of liberation’, a praxis
that combines the critical force of historical-political realism with the utopian vision
of a liberated social world.
Lastly, I ask what Anglo-American political philosophy can learn from Latin
American political realism. The dominant paradigm in so-called ‘analytic’ political
philosophy for the past 40 years has been the markedly ahistorical, normative
political theories of John Rawls and Robert Nozick. These theorists have been
criticized for their unjustified pretensions to rational (transcendental) authority
(e.g., by Bernard Williams and Raymond Geuss). Others have raised suspicions
about the possible ideological role such normative theories play in hypostatizing the
concepts of the political status quo and limiting the possibilities for liberatory
praxis. I close by suggesting that contemporary Latin American political philosophy,
in particular that of Ignacio Ellacuría, offers a promising alternative.