ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the implications of the relation between Jurgen Habermas' critical social theory and postcolonial theory in the distinctive context of Latin America. It provides a brief introduction to Latin American philosophy and social theory through a discussion of the dominant modernist, ‘universalistic' tradition and its reception of the Frankfurt School legacy, and especially of Habermas. The chapter focuses on the challenge to Habermas' social theory represented by the ‘modernity/coloniality research programme', as synthesized in the ‘geopolitics of knowledge' of Walter Mignolo. It then suggests that Habermas' notion of modernity as an ‘unfinished project' can incorporate multiple modernities and issues of cultural diversity. Brazil is the leading centre for discussion of the Frankfurt tradition generally, partly because it has been the site of Portuguese translations and has by far the highest level of investment in higher education and research. Mignolo turned to the decolonial project late in his career.
