Think from Tradition, Think Tradition. Thought and Politics in Latin America

This paper aims to discuss the notion of "tradition of discourse" in political thought, a notion that may be useful for some purposes, as a way to organize and make sense of the body of knowledge that has been formulated over time, but which is an obstacle for others. The problem is that the notion of tradition of discourse is accompanied by the idea of continuity and, with it, the assumption of certain constancy and durability in political ideas, even admitting all the innovations that are made on that tradition. Although we may have the impression that the ideas seem similar and are repeated over time, the conceptual framework that makes thought possible in different historical moments is modified and with it the meaning of thought. For this reason, the objective of the present work is to characterize this notion of "tradition of discourse" in order to examine the elements that are its own. Second, to point out the tensions that these elements produce when faced with an archaeological reading of political thought. These reflections will be traversed throughout the work by the proposal to problematize the ways of thinking about politics in Latin America and to recognize their conditions of possibility.