Latin America as a Historico-Philosophical Relation (original) (raw)

2003, CR: The New Centennial Review

     ,   bedfellows. This is perhaps because the predication that naturally followsthat of a "Latin American philosophy," or perhaps of a "philosophy of Latin America"-seems inseparable from a prior doubt whether such a thing really does, or could, exist. As the Chilean philosopher Iván Jaksic has written, "the question as to the existence of a Latin American philosophy is rhetorical, given that it is posed most frequently by those who already desire to affirm it." 1 Although no one can doubt for an instant the existence of Latin American philosophers or of Latin Americans (and Latin Americanists) who philosophize, the notion that the resulting philosophy is more than accidentally "Latin American" is less than certain. Still, to deny the existence of a Latin American philosophy seems itself no less in danger of becoming rhetorical, in danger of falling back onto what was already simply the desire to deny something because of its strangeness to the intellectual ear. But considered more carefully, this uneasiness turns out, I think, to have little to do with rhetoric, and more to do with two more general but highly refractory ideas, or premises, partially concealed in the initial question itself.

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact