 The goal of intellectual independence, important to many varieties of the philosophy of liberation, was not new with the philosophy of liberation. Strands of it can be found in the work of Ramos and others in the early parts of the 20th century. Other forerunners include the culturalist and historicist views of Leopoldo Zea, which emphasize the distinctiveness of Latin America and its history. Moreover, Augusto Salazar Bondy’s (1925–1974) concern for intellectual authenticity, informed by dependency theory, paved the way for important developments in the philosophy of liberation. However, the distinctive feature of the philosophy of liberation is the degree to which it has developed the theme of liberation into a far-reaching and systematic critique of European (and later, United States) dominance in intellectual, economic, and social worlds. In particular, philosophers of liberation charge that the intellectual and economic frameworks of Europe and the United States are distinguished (currently and historically) by a disregard for or hostility to the concerns of those outside the systems of power central to Europe and the United States.