Abstract
a product of human thought that betrays the lived uniqueness of persons, reducing otherness to the categories of the understanding and to its historical consequences? Or is history too thick to be synchronized in memory and historical consciousness? The article, taking its inspiration from Enrique Dussels ethics of liberation and particular moments of Latin American history, develops the notion of the proximity of history, phenomenologically critiquing Emmanuel Levinass own reduction of history to consciousness, his reading of history as a synchronizing betrayal of diachronic events. It thus reads Levinas against his own texts, arguing that historical memory and historical encounters function much as the face does in Levinass own ethics, not only giving rise to irrecusable responsibilities, but also demanding the work of a critical, conscious appropriation of that history. Key Words: conquest Dussel ethics history Latin America Levinas proximity responsibility.