Thanks to Armando Correia Pacheco of the Pan American Union and his collaborators, the scholarly world now has at long last quick access to lists (partially annotated) of the major writings by and about the “fundadores” of Latin American philosophy. According to the criterion set up originally by the late Francisco Romero of Argentina, the “fundadores” in question are those Latin American thinkers who flourished during the crucial period of transition from positivism to anti-positivism in Latin American thought (approximately between 1875 to 1925) and are responsible in large part for the present flowering of philosophical activities in Latin America.
The monograph lists chronologically the philosopshical and non-philosophical publications concerning twenty “fundadores” of philosophy in Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Mexico. Although one may question whether all of the twenty names selected are really “founders” (in Romero’s sense) or “philosophers” (in the strict sense), there is no doubt that this important bibliographical volume (containing both primary and secondary sources) will prove indispensable to any serious study of Latin American philosophical thought. Furthermore, it should help us recognize at once the specific need on our part to include philosophy as a regular subject in our current programs of Latin American studies.
