Hinkelammert’s contribution to Latin American critique of neoliberalism

Abstract

This essay seeks to show the theoretical, political and ethical relevance of the contribution made by Franz Hinkelammert to the critique of neoliberal theory. This article begins with some aspects of the intellectual situation of the eighties when neoliberalism was introduced in Latin America, then offers a general characterization of Latin American critique of neoliberalism, and finally presents some of the central aspects of Hinkelammert’s contribution to this critique, noting that the center of his rebuttal refers to its economic theory. The article highlights that neoliberal thought has sacralized market, conferring it the same attributes that Christian theology gives to God, and that paradoxically it is central to this ideology its radical anti-humanism, and its commercial totalitarianism character.