Dear Friends:

I am looking for the names and references of scholars from or
based in Latin America whose work is mainly related to political
philosophy and its relation to the specific problems of the
region. I'm particularly interested in the influence that Alasdair
MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel, Jürgen Habermas, John
Rawls, Will Kymlicka, and the like may have had or continues to
have on their Latin American counterparts. Any leads will be
appreciated (m.fonseca@utoronto.ca)


In case anyone is interested:
"I'm currently working on a manuscript that deals with the
relationship between certain currents within the international
discourse of political philosophy (particularly the
communitarism of MacIntyre and Taylor and the universalism of
Habermas and Rawls) and certain very crucial issues that have
emerged in Guatemalan debates.

Briefly. The manuscript deals particularly with the emergence of
new forms of identity, community, and post-nationalist politics in
Guatemala and the way in which these various cultural and
political issues get articulated through a succession of competing
and even contradictory cultural and political languages from about
the 1950s to the present. In relation to these issues, then, the
manuscript explores questions of identity, community, citizeship,
and conflict resolution - as these issues get articulated in
political philosophy rather than, for example, literary criticism.
In my own version of these questions I draw, admittedly rather
heavily, on Habermas' discursive principle (D), as both a
procedural ideal as well as an alternative to substantialist and
more problematic principles currently on offer in Guatemala.

The manuscript also argues - as I've made public at other times
and places - that what scholars usually refer to as "civil
society" is in fact a rather new development in Guatemala
(preceded by a long historical period dominated by what certain
scholars call "organic forms of citizenship" or, in Spanish,
"vecinazgo"), arising precisely out of the human rubble left by
decades of war and exhausted cultural and political languages.

What the manuscript also argues -a point I've also already made
more succinctly in other places and at other times- is that in
seeking to constitute themselves into a civl society from the
mid-1980s onwards, individuals and organizations sought to adopt a
new kind of cultural and political vocabulary and, eventually,
found it in the international discourse of human rights. The
argument I make is that at the heart of this new language the only
reasonable principle that activists can appeal to is, precisely,
the discursvie principle as Habermas articulates it in Moral
Consciousness and Communicative Action (p. 66). Etc., etc.

Essentially, this manuscript is a conversion of my doctoral
thesis into something that can be published in a more or less
polished form. Hence the need to beef up the sources, information,
and arguments around people actively and seriously working in
political philosophy as this relates to the above and similar
issues."



Thanks,

Apreciados/as Amigos/as:

Estoy buscando los nombres y las referencias de académicos/as
basados en o directamente de Latinoamérica cuyo trabajo se centre
en la relación de la filosofía política con los problemas de la
región. Me interesa en particular la influencia que gente como
Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel, Jürgen
Habermas, John Rawls, Will Kymlicka hayan tenido o continúen
teniendo sobre sus colegas en Latinoamérica. Cualquier ayuda será
muy agradecida. (m.fonseca@utoronto.ca)

En caso de alguien este interesado/a, arribo incluyo una descripcion de los motivos por los que necesito informacion.

Gracias,

Marco Fonseca, Ph.D.

Adjunct Professor
Department of Political Science
University of Toronto
100 St. George Street
Toronto, ON M5S 3G3
Canada
Tel:  416-978-3343
Email: m.fonseca@utoronto.ca
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