The article describes the explanations formulated by scholars and public intellectuals for the collective violence that occurred during the protests of Chile in 2019 and Colombia in 2021 and classifies them into three: the one that conceives it as a popular revolt, as a social outbreak, and as an uprising. Later it outlines the political philosophical profile of each one, that is, their idea of violence, of the state, of the social movement, their dominant political emotion and their normative judgment on violence.