Introduction
Philosophy has long centered the perspectives and contributions of white male thinkers, especially from Europe and the U.S.. In an effort to expand our understanding of philosophy beyond what is predominantly recognized and to learn about the history and achievements of diverse philosophers and philosophies, this guide offers a brief exploration into Latin American philosophy. Generally speaking, “the term ‘Latin American philosophy’ refers broadly to philosophy in, from, or about Latin America. However, the definitions of both ‘Latin America’ and ‘philosophy’ are historically fluid and contested, leading to even more disagreement when combined” (Stehn, “Latin American Philosophy,” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Despite this diversity of perspectives, we nevertheless provide a general smattering of figures and works in the field.
We highlight a few influential Latine thinkers who have made significant contributions in several areas of philosophy, including ethics, aesthetics, logic, and political philosophy, to name a few. Many of their works challenge us to think outside of dominant viewpoints, spanning subjects such as identity, feminism and queer studies, colonial studies, indigenous thought, and justice. We also showcase relatively recent books and scholarly articles in various subdomains of Latin American philosophy. The individuals and works mentioned here represent only a handful of the many important Latine philosophers and works of history and today, but we hope that this guide will provide a basis for further exploration into the thinkers and philosophical thought that have come out of Latin America.
Dr. Julio Covarrubias on Latin American philosophers throughout history
Video: Setting the Record Straight:The Latin American Mind in Global Context | Julio Covarrubias | TEDxUofW. TEDx Talks (2019).
Further reading and exploration
- "Latin American Philosophy" (Alexander V. Stehn, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- "Latin American Philosophy" (Jorge Gracia and Manuel Vargas, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- "Latinx Philosophy" (Manuel Vargas, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- "Analytic Philosophy in Latin America" (Perez, Diana Ines and Santiago Echeverri, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- "Latin American Philosophy: Metaphilosophical Foundations" (Susana Nuccetelli, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Committee: Hispanics/Latinxs in the field of Philosophy (American Philosophical Society)
- APA Studies on Hispanic/Latino Issues in Philosophy (American Philosophical Society)
Course guides from other universities
- PHIL 419 A: Latin American Philosophy (University of Washington)
- PHIL 352 1002: Latin American Philosophy (University of Nevada Las Vegas)
- PHIL 4372: Latin American Philosophy: Overview & How to Get Help (Texas State University)
Prominent Latine Philosophers
A selection of Latine philosophers, along with a summary of their research areas and interests.
- Alejandro Tomasini (Mexico), UNAM Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas - wittgensteinian philosophy, published on mathematics, knowledge, language, metaphysics, politics, ethics, aesthetics and religion
- Mauricio Beuchot (Mexico), UNAM Seminario de Hermenéutica del Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas - analogical hermeneutics, semiotics, poetry
- Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, also known as Subcomandante Marcos (Mexico), former military leader and spokesperson for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation - political philosophy, anti-capitalism, anti-globalization
- Manuel Vargas (Mexico), University of California San Diego - ethics, moral psychology, history of Mexican philosophy, Latin American Philosophy
- Graciela Hierro (Mexico; 1928-2003) - feminist philosophy, ethics, freedom, gender and sexuality
- Santiago Castro-Gómez (Colombia), Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - “frontiers” of sociology, anthropology, literary studies, and cultural studies; methodological and epistemological problems in social sciences.
- Laura Quintana (Colombia), Universidad de Los Andes - contemporary political philosophy, modern and contemporary aesthetics, poststructuralism, colonialism and postcolonialism
- María del Rosario Acosta López (Colombia), University of California Riverside - Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art, Romanticism and German Idealism (esp. Schiller and Hegel), Continental European Political Philosophy (esp. French and Italian); Decolonial Studies and Latin American Philosophy
- Walter Mignolo (Argentina), School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris), Duke University - semiotics, literary theory, decoloniality, global coloniality, the geopolitics of knowledge, transmodernity, border thinking, and pluriversality
- Julio Cabrera (Argentina), professor emeritus, University of Brasília - negative ethics, naturalistic phenomenology, philosophy of language, logic, cinema-philosophical thought
- Enrique Dussel (Argentina, Mexico; 1934-2023) - philosophy of liberation, philosophy of history, epistemology, political philosophy, economics, ethics
- Ernesto Laclau (Argentina; 1935-2014) - post-Marxist political theory, hegemony, identity politics
- Rodolfo Kusch (Argentina; 1922-1979) - indigenous epistemology, anthropology, ethnography
- Mario Bunge (Argentina; 1919-2020) - global systemism, emergentism, rationalism, scientific realism, materialism and consequentialism, physics
- Nelly Richard (Chile), Universidad ARCIS, University of Chile, Princeton University - cultural theory, literary criticism, art history, aesthetics, philosophy, and feminist theory
- Humberto Maturana (Chile; 1928-2021) - autopoiesis, systems thinking, cybernetics, biology of cognition
- Marilena Chaui (Brazil), emerita professor, University of São Paulo - history of modern philosophy and contemporary philosophy, political philosophy (democracy, ideology, citizenship, and class struggle)
- Paulo Freire (Brazil; 1921-1997) - critical pedagogy, Christian socialism, Marxism, Marxist humanism
- Newton da Costa (Brazil; 1929-2024) - mathematics, paraconsistent logic, non-classical logic
- Mário Ferreira dos Santos (Brazil; 1907-1968) - concrete philosophy, pythagoreanism, neoplatonism, thomism, scotism, mutualism
- Gilda de Melo e Sousa (Brazil; 1919-2005) - feminism, aesthetics, philosophy of sociology, fashion
- Francisco Miró Quesada Cantuarias (Peru; 1918-2019) - paraconsistent logic, unorthodox logics
Books
Latin American and Latinx Philosophy: A Collaborative Introduction by ISBN: 9781351586009Publication Date: 2019-08-13This book is a beginner's guide to canonical texts in Latin American and Latinx philosophy, providing the non-specialist with necessary historical and philosophical context, and demonstrating their contemporary relevance. It is written in jargon-free prose for students and professors who are interested in the subject, but who don't know where to begin. Each of the twelve chapters, written by a leading scholar in the field, examines influential texts that are readily available in English and introduces the reader to a period, topic, movement, or school that taken together provide a broad overview of the history, nature, scope, and value of Latin American and Latinx philosophy. Although this volume is primarily intended for the reader without a background in the Latin American and Latinx tradition, specialists will also benefit from its many novelties, including an introduction to Aztec ethics; a critique of "the Latino threat" narrative; the legacy of Latin American philosophy in the Chicano movement; an overview of Mexican existentialism, Liberation philosophy, and Latin American and Latinx feminisms; a philosophical critique of indigenism; a study of Latinx contributions to the philosophy of immigration; and an examination of the intersection of race and gender in Latinx identity.
An Introduction to Latin American Philosophy by ISBN: 9781107067646Publication Date: 2020-11-05Latin American philosophy is best understood as a type of applied philosophy devoted to issues related to the culture and politics of Latin America. This introduction provides a comprehensive overview of its central topics. It explores not only the unique insights offered by Latin American thinkers into the traditional pre-established fields of Western philosophy, but also the many 'isms' developed as a direct result of Latin American thought. Many concern matters of practical ethics and social and political philosophy, such as Lascasianism, Arielism, Bolívarism, modest and immodest feminisms, republicanism, positivism, Marxism, and liberationism. But there are also meta-philosophical 'isms' such as originalism and perspectivism.
Latin American Philosophy: Currents, Issues, Debates by ISBN: 0253341809Publication Date: 2003-01-01The ten essays in this lively anthology move beyond a purely historical consideration of Latin American philosophy to cover recent developments in political and social philosophy as well as innovations in the reception of key philosophical figures from the European Continental tradition. Topics such as indigenous philosophy, multiculturalism, the philosophy of race, democracy, postmodernity, the role of women, and the position of Latin America and Latin Americans in a global age are explored by notable philosophers from the region. An introduction by Eduardo Mendieta examines recent trends and points to the social, political, economic, and cultural conditions that have inspired the discipline. Latin American Philosophy brings English-speaking readers up to date with recent scholarship and points to promising new directions.
A Companion to Latin American Philosophy by ISBN: 9781405179799Publication Date: 2009-12-14This comprehensive collection of original essays written by an international group of scholars addresses the central themes in Latin American philosophy. It comprises a specially commissioned collection of essays, many of them written by Latin American authors, examining the history of Latin American philosophy and its current issues. This book traces the development of the discipline, and offers biographical sketches of key Latin American thinkers, showcasing the diversity of approaches, issues, and styles that characterize the field.
Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century: The Human Condition, Values, and the Search for Identity by ISBN: 1573929786Publication Date: 2004-02-01This collection offers an anthology of Latin American philosophers in English, including leading philosophers from several different Latin American countries and from various periods in the history of Latin American thought. Though the main focus is upon the rich contemporary period, several key texts from the colonial and independent period are included to provide the reader with some historical background. Dividing the work into four major sections -- Colonial Beginnings and Independence, Philosophical Anthropology, Values, and The Search for Identity -- the editors complement their selections with introductions to the themes covered in each section and brief biographies of each author.
An Introduction to Mesoamerican Philosophy by ISBN: 9781009218771Publication Date: 2023-08-03The philosophy of Mesoamerica - the indigenous groups of precolonial North-Central America - is rich and varied but relatively little-known. In this book, Alexus McLeod introduces the philosophical traditions of the Maya, Nahua (Aztecs), Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and others, focusing in particular on their treatment of language, truth, time, creation, personhood, knowledge, and morality. His wide-ranging discussion includes important texts of world literature such as the K'iche Maya Popol Vuh and the Aztec Florentine Codex, as well as precolonial glyphic texts and imagery.
El pensamiento indigena en America: Los antiguos Andinos, Mayos y Nahuas by ISBN: 9507866477Publication Date: 2008-01-01A diferencia del pensamiento occidental, que se dirige unilateralmente hacia el Cielo y la luz, el pensamiento indigena vuelve tambien su atencion a la oscuridad y las profundidades. Ademas son singulares sus indagaciones sobre el conocimiento, ligadas en los mitos a las experiencias existenciales de la sexualidad y la enfermedad. Trabajando sobre las fuentes, que reproduce extensamente, y con una mirada filosofica, este libro cuestiona los comunes criterios hermeneuticos, sostenidos entre otros por Mircea Eliade, en el estudio de la espiritualidad arcaica.
Philosophy of the Ancient Maya: Lords of Time by ISBN: 9781498531382Publication Date: 2017-12-26This book investigates some of the central topics of metaphysics in the philosophical thought of the Maya people of Mesoamerica, particularly from the Preclassic through Postclassic periods. This book covers the topics of time, change, identity, and truth, through comparative investigation integrating Maya texts and practices--such as Classic Period stelae, Postclassic Codices, and Colonial-era texts such as the Popol Vuh and the books of Chilam Balam--and early Chinese philosophy.
Maya Worldviews at Conquest by ISBN: 9780870819452Publication Date: 2009-08-31This book examines Maya culture and social life just prior to contact and the effect that the subsequent Spanish conquest, as well as contact with other Mesoamerican cultures, had on the Maya worldview. Focusing on the Postclassic and Colonial periods, this book provides a regional investigation of archaeological and epigraphic evidence of Maya ideology, landscape, historical consciousness, ritual practices, and religious symbolism before and during the Spanish conquest. The volume focuses on the impact of conversion, hybridization, resistance, and revitalization on the Mayans' understanding of their world and their place in it. It also addresses the issue of anthropologists unconsciously projecting their modern worldviews on the culture under investigation.
Maya Intellectual Renaissance: Identity, Representation, and Leadership by ISBN: 0292709390Publication Date: 2005-08-01When Mayan leaders protested the celebration of the Quincentenary of the "discovery" of America and joined with other indigenous groups in the Americas to proclaim an alternate celebration of 500 years of resistance, they rose to national prominence in Guatemala. This was possible in part because of the cultural, political, economic, and religious revitalization that occurred in Mayan communities in the later half of the twentieth century. Another result of the revitalization was Mayan students' enrollment in graduate programs in order to reclaim the intellectual history of the brilliant Mayan past. Victor Montejo was one of those students. This book collects essays Montejo has written over the past ten years that address three critical issues facing Mayan peoples today: identity, representation, and Mayan leadership. Montejo is deeply invested in furthering the discussion of the effectiveness of Mayan leadership because he believes that self-evaluation is necessary for the movement to advance. He also criticizes the racist treatment that Mayans experience, and advocates for the construction of a more pluralistic Guatemala that recognizes cultural diversity and abandons assimilation.
Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion by ISBN: 9781607322221Publication Date: 2014-03-15This book demonstrates that the Aztecs advanced a highly sophisticated and internally coherent systematic philosophy worthy of consideration alongside other philosophies from around the world. The book focuses on the ways Aztec metaphysics--the Aztecs' understanding of the nature, structure and constitution of reality--underpinned Aztec thinking about wisdom, ethics, politics, and aesthetics, and served as a backdrop for Aztec religious practices as well as everyday activities such as weaving, farming, and warfare. Aztec metaphysicians conceived reality and cosmos as a grand, ongoing process of weaving--theirs was a world in motion. Drawing upon linguistic, ethnohistorical, archaeological, historical, and contemporary ethnographic evidence, Maffie argues that Aztec metaphysics maintained a processive, transformational, and non-hierarchical view of reality, time, and existence along with a pantheistic theology.
Discourses of the Elders: the Aztec Huehuetlatolli: a First English Translation by ISBN: 9781324020592Publication Date: 2023-08-29The Aztecs of central Mexico had a rich philosophical tradition, recorded in Latin script by Spanish clergymen and passed down for centuries in the native Nahuatl language--one of the earliest transcripts being the Huehuetlatolli, or Discourses of the Elders, compiled by Friar Andrés de Olmos circa 1535. The Discourses consists of short conversations between elders and young people on how to achieve a meaningful and morally sound life. The Aztecs had a metaphysical tradition but no concept of "being." They considered the mind an embodied force, present not just in the brain but throughout the body. Their core values relied on collective responsibility and group wisdom, not individual thought and action, orienting life around one's actions in this realm rather than an afterlife, distinctly opposed to the Christian beliefs that permeate Europe and America. Sebastian Purcell's fluency in his grandmother's native Nahuatl brings to light the Aztec ethical landscape in English.
In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes by ISBN: 9780521591348Publication Date: 2010-06-07This book examines how people in the Andean region have invoked the Incas to question and rethink colonialism and injustice, from the time of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century until the late twentieth century. It stresses the recurrence of the 'Andean Utopia', that is, the idealization of the pre-colonial past as an era of harmony, justice, and prosperity and the foundation for political and social agendas for the future. The author highlights how different groups imagined the pre-Andean world as a model for a new society. These included those conquered by the Spanish in the sixteenth century but also rebels in the colonial and modern era and a heterogeneous group of intellectuals and dissenters.
Other Resources
"Aztec Philosophy" (Maffie, James; Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Geo-Epistemology: Latin America and the Location of Knowledge by ISBN: 9783039115730Publication Date: 2009-11-20This book is about the formation and development of Latin America as name, idea and concept, as well as the wider concepts of location, knowledge and the relationship between them. Latin America is not only a subject or an academic construct, it is also a perspective from which subjectivities are established, knowledge is developed and narratives are produced. This study argues that epistemology cannot exist in abstract terms, despite traditional academic arguments to the contrary. Therefore the author uses 'Latin America' to anchor his more general arguments in a particular location and calls this approach 'geo-epistemology'. The author discusses how the specificity of a particular location can contribute to the establishment of both a method of formulating human knowledge and the boundaries of what can be known. In response to the contemporary debate on 'space of thinking', the author proposes a new concept of 'reversal thinking', which leads to an examination of the roles of language and writing from an epistemic point of view.
Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide by ISBN: 9781612055442Publication Date: 2014-02-28This book explores the concept of 'cognitive injustice': the failure to recognise the different ways of knowing by which people across the globe run their lives and provide meaning to their existence. Boaventura de Sousa Santos shows why global social justice is not possible without global cognitive justice. Santos argues that Western domination has profoundly marginalised knowledge and wisdom that had been in existence in the global South. She contends that today it is imperative to recover and valorize the epistemological diversity of the world. Epistemologies of the South outlines a new kind of bottom-up cosmopolitanism, in which conviviality, solidarity and life triumph against the logic of market-ridden greed and individualism.
Belief, Personal, and Propositional Knowledge by ISBN: 9042007427Publication Date: 1998-01-01The author offers a systematic analysis of the fundamental epistemic concepts: belief, personal knowledge, propositional knowledge, and certainty. He analyses their relationships, on the one hand, with reasons that justify the truth of our beliefs, and on the other with motivations (desires, wants, interests) that can distort them.
The Matter of Empire: Metaphysics and Mining in Colonial Peru by ISBN: 9780822944607Publication Date: 2017-02-03This book examines the philosophical principles invoked by apologists of the Spanish empire that laid the foundations for the material exploitation of the Andean region between 1520 and 1640. Centered on Potosi, Bolivia, Orlando Bentancor's original study ties the colonizers' attempts to justify the abuses wrought upon the environment and the indigenous population to their larger ideology concerning mining, science, and the empire's rightful place in the global sphere. Bentancor points to the underlying principles of scholasticism, particularly in the work of Thomas Aquinas, as the basis of the instrumentalist conception of matter and enslavement, despite the inherent contradictions to moral principles. Bentancor grounds this metaphysical framework in a close reading of sixteenth-century debates on Spanish sovereignty in the Americas and treatises on natural history and mining by theologians, humanists, missionaries, mine owners, jurists, and colonial officials. To Bentancor, their presuppositions were a major turning point for colonial expansion and paved the way to global mercantilism.
Cosmos, Values, and Consciousness in Latin American Digital Culture by ISBN: 9783030453978Publication Date: 2020-05-20This book understands digital cultural production of electronic literatures and digital art by looking at electronic and digital works that produce subjective positionality, clouded knowledges of quantum theories, and metaphysical patterns grounded in a cultural ideology. This book underlines a conceptual framework for understanding how digital media impacts reading, approaching, and even interpreting social reality. The qualitative analyses interpret the current zeitgeist, and the works selected speak of the diverse, sometimes regionalized, and often multi-ethnic reality of the Latin American experience. The analyses elaborate on how artists reflect both the world they live in and a universal consciousness.
Vértigos argumentales: Una ética de la disputa by ISBN: 9788476584279Publication Date: 1994Este ensayo procura caracterizar lo que es la razón a partir de una "fenomenología de la experiencia argumental" y de como ello constituye la única alternativa a la violencia. En este sentido, tal vez pueda también advertir acerca de actitudes básicas que tarde o temprano acaban con el argüir generando palabras engañosas y "vértigos argumentales", actitudes teóricas como la tentación de la certeza y de la ignorancia, y prácticas como la tentación del poder y de la impotencia. Quien dispone de un saber inmune a la duda, y quien cree que literalmente ni sabe ni se puede saber nada, no necesita argumentos; esas personas engañosamente seguras se encuentran más allá o más acá de cualquier argumentación. Algo similar sucede con quien sueña resolver los problemas de creencias imponiendo ciertos credos por medio del poder, o con quien, en el extremo simétricamente opuesto, se enreda en la ensordecedora y, por eso mismo, suicida falta de palabras de la impotencia. Por el contrario, orientarse dejándose guiar por el ir y venir de los argumentos implica confiar en que se posee cierto grado de autonomía, alguna capacidad de decisión y apuesta al poder de los buenos argumentos para enfrentar perplejidades, conflictos, problemas...
Misplaced ideas? : Political-Intellectual History in Latin America by ISBN: 9780197556672Publication Date: 2024In 'Misplaced Ideas?', Elías J. Palti examines how Latin American identity has been conceived across different epochs and diverse conceptual contexts. Palti approaches these ideas from a historical-intellectual perspective, unraveling the theoretical foundations on which the very interrogation on Latin American identity has been forumulated and re-formulated. While he does not endorse or refute any particular perspective, Palti discloses the historical and contingent nature of their foundations.
Delimitations of Latin American Philosophy by ISBN: 9780253044846Publication Date: 2019-12-03A distinctive focus of 19th- and 20th-century Latin American philosophy is the convergence of identity formation and political liberation in ethnically and racially diverse postcolonial contexts. From this perspective, Omar Rivera interprets how a "we" is articulated and deployed in central political texts of this robust philosophical tradition. In particular, by turning to the work of Peruvian political theorist José Carlos Mariátegui among others, Rivera critiques philosophies of liberation that are invested in the redemption of oppressed identities as conditions for bringing about radical social and political change, foregrounding Latin America's complex histories and socialities to illustrate the power and shortcomings of these projects. Building on this critical approach, Rivera studies interrelated epistemological, transcultural, and aesthetic delimitations of Latin American philosophy in order to explore the possibility of social and political liberation "beyond redemption."
Vernacular Latin Americanisms: War, the Market, and the Making of a Discipline by ISBN: 9780822965541Publication Date: 2018-12-11This book offers a long-view perspective on the intense debates that shaped Latin American studies and still inform their function in the globalized and neoliberal university of today. By doing so he provides a reevaluation of a field whose epistemological and political status has obsessed its participants up until the present. The book focuses on the emergence of Latin Americanism as a field of critical debate and scholarly inquiry between the 1890s and the 1960s. Degiovanni explores in particular how the discourse and realities of war and capitalism have left an indelible mark on the formation of disciplinary perspectives on Latin American cultures in both the United States and Latin America.
Andean Aesthetics and Anticolonial Resistance: a Cosmology of Unsociable Bodies by ISBN: 9781350173750Publication Date: 2021-11-18Informed by Gloria Anzaldúa's and José Carlos Mariátegui's work, as well as by Andean cosmology, Omar Rivera turns to Inka stonework and architecture as an example of a "Cosmological Aesthetics." He articulates ways of sensing, feeling and remembering that are attuned to an aesthetic of water, earth and light. On this basis, Rivera brings forth a corporeal orientation that can be inhabited by the oppressed, one that withdraws from predominant modern/Western conceptions of the human. By providing an aesthetic analysis of cosmological sensing, Rivera sets the stage for exploring physical dimensions of anti-colonial resistance, and furthers the Latinx and Latin American tradition of anti-colonial and liberatory philosophy. Seeing aesthetic involvements with the cosmos as a source for embodied modes of resistance, Rivera turns to the work of María Lugones and Enrique Dussel in order to make explicit the aesthetic dimensions of their work.
La crítica de la colonialidad en ocho ensayos y una antropología por demanda by ISBN: 9875746258Publication Date: 2015La cultura y su patrimonio, a su vez, son percibidos como una decantación del proceso histórico, sedimento de la experiencia histórica acumulada y en un proceso que no se detiene. El carácter cumulativo de ese sedimento se concretiza en lo que percibimos como usos, costumbres y nociones de apariencia quieta y repetitiva, que el concepto antropológico de cultura captura, estabiliza y postula como su objeto de observación disciplinar. Sin embargo, todo etnógrafo que regresa a su campo diez años después sabe que esa apariencia de estabilidad no es más que un espejismo, y que usos y costumbres son nada más que historia en proceso. Se advierte, de esta forma, que la costumbre puede ser cambiada y, en verdad, se modifica constantemente, pues la permanencia de un pueblo no depende de la repetición de sus prácticas, ni de la inmovilidad de sus ideas. Soltamos así las amarras que sustentan la identidad, sin dispensarla, pero refiriéndola a la noción de pueblo, como vector histórico, como agente colectivo de un proyecto histórico, que se percibe viniendo de un pasado común y construyendo un futuro también común, a través de una trama interna que no dispensa el conflicto de intereses y el antagonismo de las sensibilidades éticas y posturas políticas, pero que comparte una historia.
Indigenism, Pan-Indigenism and Cosmovisionism: The Confluence of Indigenous Thought in the Americas by ISBN: 9780917617908Publication Date: 2023-03-15Throughout the Americas, indigenous movements, activists and intellectuals have, over the centuries, used sophisticated strategies and tactics in the production, distribution and application of knowledge to address problems at various levels of their experiences. These levels and units of analysis range from the local to the regional and transregional spheres of activity. Indigenous thought in the Americas will be examined at the micro, meso and macro levels. At the micro-level, indigenism concerns the issues and problems of historiography, ideology, epistemology and, at the communal level, hyphenation (dual ethnic identity such as native-American). At the meso-level, pan-indigenism relates to the comparative ideological, historiographical and epistemological issues and problems of indigenism transcommunally. Cosmovisionism deals with the interpretation of nature and life itself vis-à-vis shared topics of concern such as religion, politics, ethics, and moral principles.
The Concept of Other in Latin American Liberation: Fusing Emancipatory Philosophic Rhought and Social Revolt by ISBN: 0739103318Publication Date: 2002-03-20In this study, Eugene Gogol interweaves three strands that form the intellectual bedrock for the concept of the Other in the Latin American context: Hegel's dialectic of negativity, Marx's humanism, and autochthonal emancipatory thought. From this foundation, the book explores the relation of liberatory philosophic thought to today's social and class movements. Gogol considers the logic of capitalism on Latin American soil, the ecological crisis in Latin America, and the concept and practice of self-liberation. Still one of the most contested terrains of Latin American thought, the Other has been of central concern for many luminary thinkers including Leopoldo Zea, Octavio Paz, and José Carlos Mariátegui. While these writers may not garner much publicity in the world press, the highly public and ongoing struggles of the Zapatistas and Brazil's Landless Workers Movement demonstrate the continuing need to theorize the volatile nature of Latin American social reality.
Philosophy of Liberation by ISBN: 0883444054Publication Date: 1985-11-01In 'Philosophy of Liberation,' Enrique Dussel presents a profound analysis of the alienation of peripheral peoples resulting from the imperialism of the center for more than five centuries. Dussel's aim is to demonstrate that the center's historic cultural, military, and economic domination of poor countries is 'philosophically' founded on North Atlantic onthology. By expressing supposedly universal knowledge, European philosophies, argues Dussel, have served to equate the cultural standards, modes of behavior, and rationalistic orientation of the West with human nature and to condemn the unique characteristics of peripheral peoples as nonbeing, nothing, chaos, irrationality. Hence, Western philosophies have historically legitimated and hidden the domination that oppressed cultures have suffered at the hands of the center. The creation of a just world order in the future, according to Dussel, hinges on the liberation of the periphery, based on a philosophy that is able to think the world from the perspective of the poor and to reclaim the Third World's distinct cultural inheritance, which is imbedded in the popular cultures of the poor. Apart from the liberation of the periphery, there will be no future: the center will feed itself on the sameness it has ingrained within itself. The death of the child, of the poor, will be its own death.
Hispanic / Latino Identity: A Philosophical Perspective by ISBN: 9780631217633Publication Date: 1999-11-22This volume provides an introduction to the philosophical, social, and political elements of Hispanic/Latino identity. It is a tool for anyone interested in issues that concern Hispanics/Latinos, social policy, and the history of thought and culture.
Latinos in America: Philosophy and Social Identity by ISBN: 9781405176583Publication Date: 2008-05-19This book examines what it means philosophically to be Latino and where Latinos fit in American society. The author offers a fresh perspective and clearer understanding of Latin American thought and culture, rejecting answers based on stereotypes and fear. The volume takes an interdisciplinary approach to the philosophical, social, and political elements of Hispanic/Latino identity, touching upon anthropology, history, cultural studies and sociology, as well as philosophy.
Race or Ethnicity?: On Black and Latino Identity by ISBN: 9780801445446Publication Date: 2007-03-29This collection of new essays explores the relation between race and ethnicity and its social and political implications. Although much work has been done on the philosophy of race in the past century in the United States, the concept of ethnicity has only recently awoken the interest of American philosophers, and the relations between race and ethnicity remain largely unexamined. The discussion is divided into two parts dealing, on the one hand, with the nature and the relation between race and ethnicity and, on the other, with the social consequences of the complex relations between them.
Debating Race, Ethnicity, and Latino Identity: Jorge J.E. Gracia and His Critics by ISBN: 9780231169448Publication Date: 2015-07-07The philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia engages fifteen prominent scholars on race, ethnicity, nationality, and Hispanic/Latino identity in the United States. Their discussion joins two distinct traditions: the philosophy of race begun by African Americans in the nineteenth century, and the search for an understanding of identity initiated by Latin American philosophers in the sixteenth century. Gracia and his interlocutors debate the nature of race and ethnicity and their relation to nationality, linguistic rights, matters of identity, and Affirmative Action, binding the concepts of race and ethnicity together in ways that open new paths of inquiry. Gracia's Familial-Historical View of ethnic and Hispanic/Latino identity operates at the center of each of these discussions, providing vivid access to the philosopher's provocative arguments while adding unique depth to issues that each of us struggles to understand.
Historia del Pensamiento Filosofico Latinoamericano: Una Búsqueda Incesante de la Identidad by ISBN: 8474859417Publication Date: 2006-01-01La presente obra constituye el esfuerzo por rastrear la historia del pensamiento cosmovisional y filosófico latinoamericano, desde las cosmovisiones pre-colombinas hasta las corrientes filosóficas más actuales: las filosofías de la liberación, la postmodernidad y la postcolonialidad. Aunque el autor ha procurado en su voluminosa obra hacer referencia a todas las numerosas corrientes de pensamiento que se han ido dando en el amplio panorama cultural latinoamericano, se ha centrado sobre todo en rastrear la denominada filosofía americanista.
Latin American Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Man, Values, and the Search for Philosophical Identity by ISBN: 0879753331Publication Date: 1986-06-01A collection of reading, which address the themes of interpreting man, his values, and his continuous search for philosophical identity. It guides students and professionals alike in their study of Latin American philosophy, and serves as a point of departure for further investigation.- Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century: The Human Condition, Values, and the Search for Identity by ISBN: 1573929786Publication Date: 2004-02-01This volume includes leading philosophers from several different Latin American countries and from various periods in the history of Latin American thought. Though the main focus is upon the rich contemporary period, several key texts from the colonial and independent period are included to provide the reader with some historical background. The work is divided into four major sections -- Colonial Beginnings and Independence, Philosophical Anthropology, Values, and The Search for Identity.
Feminist Philosophy in Latin America and Spain by ISBN: 9789042022072Publication Date: 2007-01-01This book demonstrates the vast range of philosophical approaches, regional issues and problems, perspectives, and historical and theoretical frameworks that together constitute feminist philosophy in Latin America and Spain. It makes available to English-Speaking readers recent feminist thought in Latin America and Spain to facilitate dialogue among Latin American, North American, and European thinkers.
Theories of the Flesh: Latinx and Latin American Feminisms, Transformation, and Resistance by ISBN: 9780190062972Publication Date: 2020-02-25This volume of new essays stages an intergenerational dialogue among philosophers to introduce and deepen engagement with U.S Latinx and Latin American feminist philosophy, and to explore their "theories in the flesh." It explores specific intellectual contributions in various topics in U.S. Latinx and Latin American feminisms that stand alone and are unique and valuable; analyzes critical contributions that U.S. Latinx and Latin American interventions have made in feminist thought more generally over the last several decades; and shows the intellectual and transformative value of reading U.S Latinx and Latin American feminist theorizing.
Translocalities/Translocalidades: Feminist Politics of Translation in the Latin/a Americas by ISBN: 9780822356158Publication Date: 2014-03-14Translocalities/Translocalidades is a path-breaking collection of essays on Latin American, Caribbean, and United States-based Latina feminisms and their multiple translations and cross-pollinations. The contributors come from countries throughout the Américas and are based in diverse disciplines, including media studies, literature, Chicana/o studies, and political science. Together, they advocate a hemispheric politics based on the knowledge that today, many sorts of Latin/o-americanidades--Afro, queer, indigenous, feminist, and so on--are constructed through processes of translocation. Latinidad in the South, North and Caribbean "middle" of the Américas, is constituted out of the intersections of the intensified cross-border, transcultural, and translocal flows that characterize contemporary transmigration throughout the hemisphere. Rather than immigrating and assimilating, many people in the Latin/a Américas increasingly move back and forth between localities, between historically situated and culturally specific, though increasingly porous, places, across multiple borders, and not just between nations.
Latin American Perspectives on Women Philosophers in Modern History by ISBN: 9783031002878Publication Date: 2022-06-22This book presents Latin American Perspectives on women philosophers, comprising selected articles from the First International Conference of Women in Modern Philosophy that took place in Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil, Latin America, in June of 2019. The conference brought together over twenty national, transnational, and international philosophers from seven countries, whose work combines historical and analytical insight to recover the philosophical legacy of women philosophers. Historical and analytical work on women's philosophical thought constitute efforts to re-conceptualize what counts as philosophical knowledge and re-appraise the epistemic relevance of written material that women thinkers produced for most of history.
The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America by ISBN: 9780822973713Publication Date: 2010-05-24This book presents the first English-language reader on LGBT politics in Latin America. Representing a range of contemporary works by scholars, activists, analysts, and politicians, the chapters address LGBT issues in nations from Cuba to Argentina. In their many findings, two main themes emerge: the struggle for LGBT rights has made significant inroads in the first decade of the twenty-first century (though not in every domain or every region); and the advances made were slow in coming compared to other social movements. The articles uncover the many obstacles that LGBT activists face in establishing new laws and breaking down societal barriers.
Articles and Chapters
Selected Articles
- Cresto, Eleonora (2012). “A Defense of Temperate Epistemic Transparency”, The Journal of Philosophical Logic, 41(6): 923–955. doi:10.1007/s10992-012-9225-7
- _____ (2018). “Knowledge Attribution Revisited: A Deflationary Account”, Synthese, 195: 3737–3753. doi:10.1007/s11229-016-1282-y
- Comesaña, Juan (2010). “Evidentialist Reliabilism”, Noûs, 44(4): 571–600. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0068.2010.00748.x
- de Almeida, Claudio (2017). “Knowledge, Benign Falsehoods, and the Gettier Problem”, in Rodrigo Borges, Claudio de Almeida, & Peter D. Klein (eds.), Explaining Knowledge: New Essays on the Gettier Problem, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 292–311.
- Páez, Andrés (2014). “La prueba testimonial y la epistemología del testimonio”, Isonomía, 40: 95–118.
- _____ (2016). “La reputación en el derecho: una aproximación epistemológica”, in R. Villanueva, B. Marciani, and P. Lastres (ed.), Ensayos sobre prueba, argumentación y justicia, Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, pp. 185–209.
Other Resources
- Nuccetelli, Susana (ed.), “Latin American Philosophy: Metaphysics and Epistemology.” PhilPapers [reading list].
- Machuca, Diego, "Epistemology in Latin America", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.).
Selected Articles
- Alchourrón, Carlos E. (1996). Detachment and defeasibility in deontic logic. Studia Logica 57 (1):5 - 18.
- Davies, Ian (2009). Latino Immigration and Social Change in the United States: Toward an Ethical Immigration Policy. Journal of Business Ethics 88 (S2):377 - 391.
- Cecilia, Arruda M. (1997). Business Ethics in Latin America. Journal of Business Ethics 16 (14):1597-1603.
- Rodríguez Del Pozo, Pablo & Mainetti, José A. (2009). Bioética sin Más: The Past, Present, and Future of a Latin American Bioethics. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 18 (3):270.
- Dussel, Enrique (1997). The architectonic of the ethics of liberation: On material ethics and formal moralities. Philosophy and Social Criticism 23 (3):1-35.
- Villarán, Alonso (2019). El Principio Etico de No-Arbitrariedad: La Teoría Moral Formal de Francisco Miró Quesada [The Ethical Priniciple of Non-Arbitrariness: Francisco Miró Quesada's Formal Moral Theory]. Pensamiento 75 (286 Extra):1339-1360.
Other Resources
- Tammelleo, Steve (ed.). "Latin American Philosophy: Ethics". PhilPapers [reading list]
Selected Articles
- Boutilier, Robert (2009). Globalization and the Careers of Mexican Knowledge Workers: An Exploratory Study of Employer and Worker Adaptations. Journal of Business Ethics 88 (S2):319 - 333.
- Dussel, Enrique (2009). A new age in the history of philosophy: The world dialogue between philosophical traditions. Philosophy and Social Criticism 35 (5):499-516.
- Exdell, John (2009). Immigration, nationalism, and human rights. Metaphilosophy 40 (1):131-146.
- Gallegos-Ordorica, Sergio Armando (2020). Decolonizing Mariátegui as a Prelude to Decolonizing Latin American Philosophy. In Corey McCall & Phillip McReynolds (eds.), Decolonizing American Philosophy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. pp. 229-249.
- Gallegos-Ordorica, Sergio A. (2022). Philosophy in Public Life in the Latin American and Latinx traditions: Mexico and Argentina. In Lee C. McIntyre, Nancy Arden McHugh & Ian Olasov (eds.), A companion to public philosophy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 75-85.
- Ortiz Delgado, Francisco Miguel (2023). The Philosophy of Trans-Historic-History Followed by President López Obrador. Revista de Filosofía 62 (163):75-85.
- Verdeja, Ernesto (2010). Official apologies in the aftermath of political violence. Metaphilosophy 41 (4):563-581.
Other Resources
- Llorente, Renzo (ed.). "Latin American Political Philosophy." PhilPapers [reading list].
Selected Articles
- Alcoff, Linda Martín (2009). Latinos beyond the Binary. Southern Journal of Philosophy 47 (S1):112-128.
- Brea, Pedro (2024). Colonialism, Race, and the Concept of Energy. Southwest Philosophy Review 40 (1):145-151.
- Mendoza, Jose Jorge (2016). Illegal: White Supremacy and Immigration Status. In Alex Sager (ed.), The Ethics and Politics of Immigration: Core Issues and Emerging Trends. Rowman & Littlefield International. pp. 201-220.
- Silva, Grant J. (2015). Embodying a "New" Color Line: Racism, Anti-Immigrant Sentiment and Racial Identities in the "Post-Racial" Era. Knowledge Cultures 3 (1).
- Stehn, Alexander V. & Alessandri, Mariana (2022). La Mexicana en la Chicana: Sources of Anzaldúa’s Mexican Philosophy. In Adrianna M. Santos, Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz & Norma E. Cantú (eds.), El Mundo Zurdo 8: Selected Works from the 2019 Meeting of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. pp. 169-186.
- Truccone-Borgogno, Santiago (2024). Responding to historical injustices: Collective inheritance and the moral irrelevance of group identity. European Journal of Political Theory 23 (I):65-84.
- Wilson, Robert A. (2023). Confronting Silences. Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society 6 (1):1-5.
Other Resources
- Tammelleo, Steve (ed.). "Latin American Philosophy of Race and Ethnicity". PhilPapers [reading list].
Selected Articles
- Alvarez, Sonia E (1998). “Feminismos Latinoamericanos”, Estudos Feministas, 6(2): 265–284.
- Alvarez, Sonia E. and Kia Lilly Caldwell (2016). “Promoting Feminist Amefricanidade: Bridging Black Feminist Cultures and Politics in the Americas”, Meridians, 14(1): v–xi. doi:10.2979/meridians.14.1.01
- Bastian Duarte, A. (2012). “From the Margins of Latin American Feminism: Indigenous and Lesbian Feminisms”, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38 (1): 153–178.
- Espinosa Miñoso, Yuderkys (2011). “The Feminism-Lesbianism Relationship in Latin America: A Necessary Link”, J. Flores, (trans.), in J. Corrales and M. Pecheny, The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 401–405.
- _____, (2014). “Etnocentrismo y colonialidad en los feminismos latinoamericanos: complicidades y consolidación de las hegemonías feministas en el espacio transnacional”, in Revista Venezolana de Estudios de la Mujer 14 (33).
- Roberts, Laura & Ramos, Fabiane (2021). Wonder as Feminist Pedagogy: Disrupting Feminist Complicity with Coloniality. Feminist Review 128 (1):28-43.
- Velez, Emma D. & Tuana, Nancy (2020). Toward Decolonial Feminisms: Tracing the Lineages of Decolonial Thinking through Latin American/Latinx Feminist Philosophy. Hypatia 35 (3):366-372.
Other Resources
- Ortega, Mariana (ed.). "Latin American Feminism", PhilPapers [reading list].
- Rivera Berruz, Stephanie, "Latin American Feminism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.).
Scholarly Journals
- Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana
- Revista Latinoamericana de Filosofía
- Crítica: Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía
- Latin American Perspectives
- Diálogos: Artes, Letras, Ciencias Humanas
- ALED - Latin American Journal of Discourse Studies
- Colegios: the Newsletter on the History of Ideas in Colonial Latin America
- Cuadernos de Filosofía Latinoamericana
- Analytica: Revista de Filosofia (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
- Cognitio: Revista de Filosofia (São Paulo, Brazil)
- Revista de Filosofía de la Universidad de Costa Rica
- Revista de Filosofía (Santiago, Chile)
- Revista de Filosofia (Mexico City, Mexico)