Robles, F. 2012. Epistemologías de la Modernidad: entre el etnocentrismo, el racionalismo universalista y las alternativas latinoamericanas. Cinta moebio 45: 169-203

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Epistemologies of Modernity: between ethnocentrism, universalist rationalism and Latin American alternatives

Dr. Fernando Robles (hrobles@udec.cl) Departamento de Sociología y Antropología, Universidad de Concepción (Concepción, Chile)

Abstract

In the context of the Eurocentric theories of modernity, the following article addresses four relevant topics and its corresponding deconstruction. 1) Hegel’s concept of modernity as the discovery of subjectivity in Western Europe. 2) Max Weber’s concept of modernity by emphasizing his criticism of protestant ethic as the engine of capitalism.3) Jürgen Habermas's conception of modernity as ‘unfinished project’, emphasizing the theoretical structure of the life-world, which occupies a special and important place in his theory of modernity. Finally, I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the emerging paradigm of decolonization, as a contribution to the improvement of their theoretical positions.

Key words: modernity, eurocentrism, rationality, protestant ethic, world of life, colonialism, modernity.