Abstract

By taking as a frame of reference the theoretical contributions of the epistemology of the South of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, the main aim of this paper is to critically review some of the modern linear and homogenizing conceptions of time and history, specifically the Enlightenment philosophy of progress, the Eurocentric teleology of Hegel and the historical finalism of the early work of Fukuyama. With this purpose, this paper proposes a new approach to the relationship of past, present and future from the critical, emancipatory and postcolonial perspective of the sociology of absences and emergencies proposed by the Portuguese social theorist.