This collection of philosophical readings includes selections from important works by Antonio Caso, José Vasconcelos, Samuel Ramos, and Leopoldo Zea from Mexico; Alejandro Korn, Francisco Romero, Carlos Astrada, Risieri Frondizi, and Arturo Andrés Roig from Argentina; Alejandro Octavio Deustua, Francisco Miró Quesada, and Augusto Salazar Bondy from Peru; Carlos Vaz Ferreira from Uruguay; and Miguel Reale from Brazil. The selections are grouped around three themes: humankind, values, and the search for a philosophical identity. Extensive introductions focusing on the history of ideas and philosophical movements as well as biobibliographical notes accompanying each selection supplement the readings. Two important theoretical themes give unity to the work beyond the three thematic groupings named above. The first is the focus on philosophical thought that “emerged from the reaction against positivism” (p. 9) in the early part of the century. The second is the humanist orientation of the readings, regardless of their methodological emphases. Of special interest to historians, in addition to the obvious historiographical value of the collection, would be the question of a philosophical-historical identity discussed at some length in the last section of the work.
The range of readers who may find the book useful includes Latin Americanists interested in philosophy and the converse. If used as a text, the collection would work best if it were supplemented by other readings. A collection of this type necessarily has some limitations. In this work, for example, no Chilean philosophers are included, and some important social thinkers such as José Carlos Mariátegui are not represented. At the undergraduate level, some of the readings are difficult; at the graduate level, the selections appear too short (from 9 to 14 pages of translated text per author with the exception of 23 pages devoted to Francisco Romero’s work). Nevertheless, the collection works very well as a basic classroom text, and serves an important function in the development of the field of Latin American philosophy in North America. Gracia, who is Cuban-born, is a recognized expert in the field, and has edited or coedited several other collections devoted to twentieth-century Latin American thought.
