The Role of History in Latin American Philosophy

Arleen Salles And Elizabeth Millan - Editors

Description

This book brings the history of Latin American philosophy to an English-speaking audience through the prominent voices of Mauricio Beuchot, Horacio Cerutti-Guldberg, María Luisa Femenías, Jorge J. E. Gracia, Oscar R. Martí, León Olivé, Carlos Pereda, and Eduardo Rabossi. They argue that Spanish is not a philosophically irrelevant language and that there are original positions to be found in the work of Latin American philosophers.

Part I of the book looks at why the history of philosophy has not developed in Latin America. A range of theoretical issues are explored, each focusing on specific problems that have hindered the development of a solid history. Part II details the complex task of writing a history of philosophy for a region still haunted by the specter of colonialism.
Acknowledgments
Introduction Arleen Salles and Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert

Part I Successful and Unsuccessful Models for Establishing a History of Latin American Philosophy

The History of Philosophy and Latin American Philosophy
Jorge J. E. Gracia
Explanatory and “Argumentative” History of Philosophy
Carlos Pereda
History and Philosophy in the Latin American Setting: Some Disturbing Comments
Eduardo Rabossi
Breaking with the Past: Philosophy and Its History in Latin America
Oscar R. Martí

Part II: Writing the History of Latin American Philosophy in and Despite the Shadows of Its Colonial Legacy

The Study of Philosophy’s History in Mexico as a Foundation for Doing Mexican Philosophy
Mauricio Beuchot
Philosophical Genealogies and Feminism in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
María Luisa Femenías
A Philosophical Debate Concerning Traditional Ethnic Groups in Latin America and the History of Philosophy
León Olivé
How and Why to Foster the History of Philosophy in Postcolonial Contexts Horacio
Cerutti-Guldberg

Bibliography
Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Latin American
• América del Sur
• History of philosophy
• South America
• Latin America
• History of the Americas
• Central America
• SS Central America
• Caribbean

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791483350
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Role of History in Latin American Philosophy

SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture

Jorge J. E. Gracia and Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal, editors

The Role of History in Latin American Philosophy

Contemporary Perspectives

Edited by Arleen Salles and Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2005 State University of New York All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2365

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

The role of history in Latin American philosophy: contemporary perspectives/edited by Arleen Salles and Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert. p. cm.—(SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian thought and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6427-X (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy, Latin American—History. I. Salles, Arleen L. F. II. Millán-Zaibert, Elizabeth. III. Series.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Acknowledgments IntroductionArleen Salles and Elizabeth MillánZaibert

Part I

Part II

Successful and Unsuccessful Models for Establishing a History of Latin American Philosophy

The History of Philosophy and Latin American PhilosophyJorge J. E. Gracia Explanatory and “Argumentative” History of PhilosophyCarlos Pereda History and Philosophy in the Latin American Setting: Some Disturbing CommentsEduardo Rabossi Breaking with the Past: Philosophy and Its History in Latin AmericaOscar R. Martí

Writing the History of Latin American Philosophy in and Despite the Shadows of Its Colonial Legacy

The Study of Philosophy’s History in Mexico as a Foundation for Doing Mexican Philosophy Mauricio Beuchot

Philosophical Genealogies and Feminism in Sor Juana Inés de la CruzMaría Luisa Femenías

A Philosophical Debate Concerning Traditional Ethnic Groups in Latin America and the History of PhilosophyLeón Olivé

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Contents

How and Why to Foster the History of Philosophy in Postcolonial Contexts Horacio CeruttiGuldberg

Bibliography Contributors Index

197 215 229 233

Acknowledgments

The idea for this project began as one of the editors, Arleen L. F. Salles, who studied philosophy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, began to reflect on how the pervasively historical approach to philosophy throughout Latin America affected the very conception of philosophy in the region. In a conversation with Jorge Gracia at a 1995 meeting of the American Philosophical Association, she was encouraged to prepare an anthology on how the ways in which the history of philosophy was dealt with at Latin American universities had influenced the development of philosophy in Latin America. As a result of that conversation, Arleen contacted several Latin American philosophers and asked them to provide their views on the relation between philosophy and its history in Latin America. There were many philosophers who were supportive of the project, Ezequiel de Olaso from Argentina and Fernando Salmerón of Mexico enthusiastically supported the project and agreed to contribute articles. It is with great sadness that this expression of gratitude will never reach them—they died during the course of the project. With their passing, important philosophical voices were lost. The contributors were selected on the basis of the quality of their pub- lished work in the area of the relation between philosophy and history, and the particular perspective each author could contribute to the discussion. One goal of the collection was to provide a representative range of views on the issue of history’s role in the development of Latin American philoso- phy, hence we have the more analytic style of Rabossi, Gracia, and Pereda with the more suggestive style of Cerutti, the feminist perspective of Femenías, the historical perspective of Beuchot and Martí, and the sociopolitical approach of Olivé. We invited scholars from many countries in Latin America (including Brazil, Chile, and Peru). The authors who

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Acknowledgments

accepted our invitation come from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Uruguay. We regret that more articles could not be included in this collec- tion, and that not every philosopher we contacted was able to accept our invitation. Perhaps most troubling is the absence of a voice from Brazil and an analysis of the effects of the Portuguese colonial presence in Latin America. We do believe, however, that the articles that deal with the ramifi- cations of the colonial period on the development of views of history in Latin America raise points that apply to both Spanish and Portuguese America, and hence that our reference to “Latin American Philosophy” in the title of this work is not misleading. In 1999, Salles organized a panel for the Society for Iberian and Latin American Thought at the American Philosophical Association on the topic addressed in the collection. This panel discussion provided important impetus for the project. Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert, who spent a year teach- ing at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, and who works in the area of Latin American philosophy, joined the project in 1999, coauthoring the introduction, editing the selections, and translating some of the revisions that were sent in by the authors. The editors are grateful to the contributing authors, who were receptive to our comments and suggestions and tirelessly went through many revisions of their work. We wish to thank JoAnne Engelbert for her translation of Beuchot’s paper; the revisions were translated by Millán-Zaibert. Femenías’ paper was translated by Salles and revised by Millán-Zaibert. Both editors worked on the translation of Cerutti’s paper. Olivé’s paper was sent in English, the revisions were translated by Millán-Zaibert. Millán-Zaibert wishes to thank her husband, Leo Zaibert, for his unflagging support and his valuable comments and criticisms. Salles is grateful to Jorge Gracia for his consistent responsiveness to her concerns and for his valuable advice, and to Gus and Emma for their loyal support throughout the preparation of the volume. The Dean’s Office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of DePaul University provided funding for two undergraduate assistants for Millán-Zaibert. These funds enabled Melissa Avila and Melissa Campos to prepare the general bibliography, and we wish to express our gratitude to both of these students for their good work and to DePaul for the institutional sup- port. We are grateful to Michael Rinella at SUNY Press for his support of this project, and to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Introduction

Arleen Salles and Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert

Until quite recently, Latin American philosophy was neglected in the 1 United States. Given the rich and interesting history of Latin American philosophy, such neglect is regrettable—the result of uninformed prejudices rather than of well-grounded judgments. During the early history of Latin American philosophy, the contributions from Latin American thinkers were generally viewed to be mere copies of the work done by Spanish and Portuguese philosophers. Hence, there was not much interest in investigat- ing the contributions from the “colonies,” as the general view was that the intellectual tradition, like the political one, was dominated by the coloni- zers. Nowadays, the lack of general knowledge regarding Latin American philosophy can be attributed to many factors, one of which is a language barrier. Few major philosophical texts from Latin America have been trans- lated into English, and this is in part due to the fact that while English, French, and German are recognized as important philosophical languages, Spanish is relegated to the realm of magical realism or of immigrant fruit pickers. In philosophy graduate programs throughout the United States, stu- dents are encouraged to learn French and German and to read the philo- sophers who wrote in those languages, but Spanish is dismissed as a philosophically irrelevant language: a consequence of the view that the philosophical discussions in Latin America are mere echoes of discussions carried out in the United States or Europe. We believe that the contribu- tions included in this volume demonstrate that there are original positions to be found in the work of Latin American philosophers and so that at least some philosophical work from Latin America offers new insights and solu- tions to problems, hence making it relevant to philosophers from other regions of the world. One goal we have in presenting this collection is to introduce some important, contemporary philosophical voices of the Latin

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