José Luis Villacañas Berlanga is one of the most important political theorists of our time. At the same time an eminent historian and an excelling philosopher, his voluminous oeuvre is still to be discovered in the English-speaking world. His analyses of neoliberalism and populism are of paramount importance to understand the contemporary situation. Fusing impulses from Kant, Weber, Schmitt, and Blumenberg and Foucault, but also Freud, in a highly original manner, he opens new pathways of historical and political analysis. The volume at hand is the first publication in English on the magisterial work of Villacañas. It comprises several contributions by important authors that, on the one hand, shed light on the intellectual influences that formed the thinking of Villacañas, while on the other hand, central to his theoretical concepts are discussed. They show how enormously helpful Villacañas’ work is for a critical analysis of the present – and the outlook into a hopefully better future.Jens Schröter, Chair of Media Studies, University of Bonn, Germany.Professor José Luis Villacañas, whose work is presented and analysed in this book, is one of the most original voices in contemporary thought. Following the best intellectual tradition, he conceives philosophy not as a game of concepts, but as an effort to take reflection to the limits of its possibilities in order to understand his time. This explains why his work—which spans dozens of essential books—links philosophy, history, theology, intellectual biography, and even literature with the aim of identifying the origins and meaning of our era. Villacañas is what was once said of Sartre or Jameson, a total intellectual, someone who uses his remarkable erudition to understand the meaning of modernity and the way in which capitalism as a form of material production, the search for the absolute as a way of establishing social order, and the market as an abstract system of interaction are intertwined. Our time would thus be one that aspires to put the world of life in parentheses when it comes to regulating exchange, but at the same time deploys multiple forms to deify power. A time that stimulates the pleasure principle through the endless chain of consumption, but at the same time administers the death drive in the form of imperial domination. José Luis Villacañas is an essential author, in any language, for thinking about our era.Carlos Peña, Chancellor, University Diego Portales, Chile.This book represents a valuable contribution to contemporary political thought and to the history of ideas in the 21st century. Its merit lies in daring to go beyond the mere repetition of the great legacies of the past century, offering instead a reflection rooted in our own time. In this horizon, the work of philosopher José Luis Villacañas takes on a central role. With a vast and fruitful career, his work has revitalized debates that once seemed exhausted, incorporating categories and perspectives that engage with today’s challenges.This is not just another academic review, but an exercise in thought that seeks to relocate philosophy at the heart of the problems of the present: the fragility of democracies, cultural tensions, technological transformations, and the civilizational dilemmas that define our era. In this sense, the history of ideas is not presented as a mere record of the past, but as a critical tool to understand the present and to envision fairer, more democratic futures.From a public university such as ours, supporting these initiatives is more than an academic duty: it is a commitment to knowledge as a public good and to the building of more thoughtful and conscious societies. This project embodies the spirit of what we understand as the university’s mission: to create, preserve, and disseminate critical thinking that illuminates the pathways of the 21st century.Oscar Garrido Álvarez, Chancellor, Universidad de Los Lagos, Chile.José Luis Villacañas and Political Theory in the 21st Century introduces readers to one of the most original and challenging voices in contemporary philosophy. Villacañas has long been a central figure in the Spanish-speaking world, known for his studies of German thought, Spanish intellectual history, and his bold interventions in public debate. At the core of his work lies a striking vision of political theology, empire, and the separation of powers as the enduring coordinates of modernity. This volume explores Villacañas’s major contributions: his theory of historical constellations, his account of the imperial dispositif, his diagnosis of neoliberalism as a new political theology, and his critique of populism as a form of Schmittian antagonism. Against both neoliberal fatalism and populist polarization, he advances a renewed civic republicanism rooted in solidarity, institutions, and the defense of the common good in the age of the Anthropocene. Engaging with thinkers from Augustine to Foucault, Schmitt to Habermas, while entering into dialogue with Latin American decolonial thought, Villacañas emerges as a truly transatlantic thinker. This book positions him as indispensable for anyone seeking to understand the dilemmas of politics, power, and democracy in the twenty-first century.Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Kyung Hee University, South Korea.In this important volume, thinkers from Latin America and Europe unravel the keys to José Luis Villacañas' philosophical labyrinth by addressing topics such as neoliberalism, the power of judgment, populism, politics, and theology. Since José Luis Villacañas has devoted his greatest attention to the ways in which objectivity and subjectivity are articulated in the contemporary world, this volume will serve as a crucial reference point for orientation in a complex 21st century, where critique must illuminate the silent background of our discourse and praxis.Clara Ramas San Miguel, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.A key work to understand the history of Hispanic ideas in the twenty-first century, this interdisciplinary volume, edited by Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo, acknowledges the importance of the Spanish historian and philosopher José Luis Villacañas’ thought and aims to disseminate his research on political philosophy and the history of political ideas. The sixteen critical essays, divided into four sections, address key issues in his discourse, including his takes on political theology, empire, modernity, capitalism, the logics of domination, Christian salvation, the Enlightenment, the formation of the Spanish state, populism, and identitarian nationalism. A debate that receives particular attention is his proposal to rethink our societies ethically and politically through civic republicanism (with its base in the Enlightenment and focused on collective political participation for the common good) as a viable alternative to neoliberal ideology and its mercantile logic. Other chapters explore Villacañas’ central concepts, including that of “precarious lives” as well as his debt to and exegeses of thinkers such as Kant, Freud, Weber, Gramsci, Blumenberg, Husserl and Agamben, and his criticism of others like Fichte, Hegel, Carl Schmitt, Habermas, and Foucault. Altogether, these essays represent a much-needed contribution to the study of Hispanic philosophical and historical discourse, and particularly that of Villacañas’s, one of today’s crucial contributors.Ignacio López-Calvo, Professor of Latin American Literature, University of California, Merced, EE.UU.
