Q0672

“Philosophy, when it is really philosophy and not sophistry or ideology, does…” — Enrique Dussel (Philosophy of Liberation §1.1.3.1 (Martínez))

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Philosophy of Liberation §1.1.3.1 (Martínez). Theme: being.

English

Philosophy, when it is really philosophy and not sophistry or ideology, does not ponder philosophy. … Philosophy ponders the nonphilosophical; the reality.
Thinker Enrique Dussel
School Political Phenomenology
Source Philosophy of Liberation §1.1.3.1 (Martínez)
Theme Being
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Philosophy of Liberation §1.1.3.1 (Martínez) and files it under Political Phenomenology. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Enrique Dussel

Enrique Dussel (1934–2023) was an Argentine-Mexican philosopher of liberation who wrote from geopolitical periphery—famously in Mexican exile—toward a worldwide philosophy. Philosophy of Liberation (1977) and later ethics of liberation fuse Levinasian exteriority with a critique of Eurocentric modernity since 1492.

How to read this passage

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Paul Tillich and Avicenna), being is framed through Africana Philosophy and Religious Existentialism. Some passages define being; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through being, otherness.

Concepts in this quote

Being
Being appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat being as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
Otherness
Otherness appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat otherness as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Enrique Dussel. (n.d.). Philosophy, when it is really philosophy and not sophistry or ideology, does not ponder philosophy. … Philosophy ponders the nonphilosophical; the reality. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0672

MLA: Enrique Dussel. “Philosophy, when it is really philosophy and not….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0672.

Chicago: Enrique Dussel. “Philosophy, when it is really philosophy and not….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0672.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Philosophy, when it is really philosophy and not…”?

The passage is attributed to Enrique Dussel, Philosophy of Liberation §1.1.3.1 (Martínez). The archive attributes this English wording to Philosophy of Liberation §1.1.3.1 (Martínez) and files it under Political Phenomenology. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Enrique Dussel mean by being?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Paul Tillich and Avicenna), being is framed through Africana Philosophy and Religious Existentialism. Some passages define being; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through being, otherness.

Same thinker

More from Enrique Dussel

  1. Before the ego cogito there is an ego conquiro; “I conquer” is the practical foundation of “I think.”
  2. From the “I conquer” applied to the Aztec and Inca world and all America, from the “I enslave” applied to Africans … from this “I” appears the Cartesian ego cogito.
  3. Written from the periphery, for persons and peoples of the periphery, this book nonetheless also addresses readers in the center of the present world system.

All quotations by Enrique Dussel

Same theme

More on being

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the being theme