Critical Theory and Decolonialism

From Horkeimer to Quijano

Abstract

The article intends to present the first generation of the Institute for Social Research, analyzing the article "Critical Theory and Traditional Theory" by Max Horkheimer and the emergence of the Latin American decolonial turn through the analysis of the article "Coloniality of power, Eurocentrism and Latin America”, by Aníbal Quijano. Both currents of thought propose to see reality quite differently from that narrated by bourgeois society. Despite this, its theorists weave different diagnoses and solutions. Critical theory intends to update and give continuity to the science of the worker developed by Marx and Engels, seeing the class struggle as a conflict to be overcome together with bourgeois society towards the emancipation of humanity. Decolonialism attacks the narrative of European superiority that emerged in the colonial period and considers that there is emancipation for the “third world” only in a project far removed from those presented by the West. Despite the notorious dissent, it is possible to identify specific points of contact in the two currents of thought.