| Sumario: | This article explores the contrasting perspectives of Moroccan philosopher Taha Abderrahmane and Latin American thinker Enrique Dussel on the question of multiple modernities within South–South intellectual dialogue. While Dussel, grounded in the philosophy of liberation, critiques modernity as an inherently Eurocentric and colonial construct – arguing that its universalization inevitably reproduces colonial logics – Taha offers a distinctive ethical reimagining of modernity. He differentiates between the universal spirit (rūḥ) of modernity, embodied in principles, such as intellectual maturity (rushd), critique (naqd) and universality (shumūl) and its historically contingent Western expressions. Against mimicry and secular developmentalism, Taha calls for a creative engagement (ibdāʿ) with the Islamic tradition (turāth) to cultivate a spiritually grounded, ethically transformative and non-imitative modernity. This article argues that while Dussel's critique remains incisive, it ultimately misreads Taha's project as abstract universalism, thereby overlooking its decolonial logic and ethical specificity. By redefining modernity through al-ibdāʿ al-mawṣūl (connected creativity), Taha confronts Eurocentric dominance and unsettles the very anti-universalist premises on which Dussel's pluriversal framework rests. His vision gestures towards a temporally decolonized modernity rooted in ethical universality and pluriversal coexistence.
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