No other Latin American country can boast of a volume in English that clarifies the development of its intellectual history as well as this one does for Mexico. Leading scholars in the history of Mexican thought were invited to deliver these papers at the Thirteenth International Congress of Philosophy held in Mexico in 1963.
Miguel León-Portilla’s essay, “Pre-Hispanic Thought,” is a perceptive analysis of the intellectual and religious concerns of the civilizations that flourished in Mexico prior to the arrival of the conquistadores. Although these ideas had no influence on philosophical development in Mexico for several centuries, the last few decades have seen an attempt to clarify the role played by these early civilizations in the formation of the Mexican people.
Edmundo O’Gorman’s “America” is a condensation of his previous works on the interpretations given to the land discovered by Columbus. He takes the Ortegan principle of historicism and uses it as a guide in analyzing the writings about the newly discovered continent. In so doing, he brings to light the conceptual problems arising from the attempt to categorize properly the New World.
José M. Gallegos Rocafull’s essay, “Philosophy in Mexico in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” provides a clear sketch of the religious and political concerns of the colonizers. It also reviews the philosophical writings of Spaniards and creoles of the period.
Rafael Moreno’s “Modern Philosophy in New Spain” presents the fundamental characteristics of the emergence of the modern era as reflected in the writings of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sigüenza y Góngora, and the Jesuits of the period. Luís Villoro’s article “The Ideological Currents of the Epoch of Independence,” a condensation of his book La Revolución de Independencia (1953), examines and interprets Spanish and French influences and gives a perceptive analysis of the developments within Mexico which led to the revolution for independence.
Leopoldo Zea’s essay, “Positivism,” is a creative, scholarly analysis of the influence of that philosophy in Mexico in the nineteenth century. It traces the development of the thought about political, economic, and social issues as they were formulated in terms of order and liberty. The concluding article on “Mexican Philosophy in the Twentieth Century” by Fernando Salmerón is a sound, provocative, well-written exposition on the Ateneo de la Juventud, Vasconcelos, Caso, and Ramos.
This collection of essays provides an authoritative perspective of the development of philosophical thought in Mexico. Yet, one might have hoped for additional comment on the relationship between European thought and Mexican thought and for a more explicit recognition of the influence of Ortega y Gasset on the philosophical orientation of most of these essays.
