Misplaced Ideas?

Reviews / Votes

Elias Palti has presented the most complete critique of Latin American philosophy written in the last twenty years. In his new book, the Argentine historian extends his analysis in An Archeology of the Political to the intellectual history of twentieth century Latin American thought. This is a masterful exercise that marks a before and after in research on the subject. * Santiago Castro-Gomez, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana * Elias Palti is arguably the most philosophically engaged Latin American historian of his generation. In this engaging book, he organizes a genealogical interpretation and critique of the philosophical 'grounding' of Latin American intellectual history, with its characteristic preoccupation with imitation, politics, and singularity. * Claudio Lomnitz, Campbell Family Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University * A tour de force. Palti deftly probes the Thracian well of 'Latin American' thought-from nineteenth-century liberalism and positivism to dependency theory and the 'decolonial' philosophy-and what he finds is typically discomfiting: the slippery ground on which it stands is, like everywhere else, its own muck. No serious student of Latin Americanism can safely ignore this book. * Mark Thurner, Distinguished International Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, History, and Humanities, FLACSO, Ecuador *