Filosofia na América Latina: a contribuição de Leopoldo Zea e a consolidação do movimento história das ideias

Abstract

The present work seeks to analyze the process of formation of philosophical thought in Latin America. The context of this analysis was the first half of the 20th century. Within this context, the figure of the Mexican philosopher Leopoldo Zea Aguilar (1924 – 2004) emerges. An intellectual who dedicated his academic life to the project of an original and authentic Latin American philosophy, he started a movement called History of Ideas. Together with different intellectuals, articulated and presented by Zea, seek answers to the question about what, in fact, is philosophy in Latin America. How can it be characterized? The central objective of this search for an understanding of what this movement was, together with Zea's contribution to its development. The research was articulated in such a way that it would make possible the understanding of this theme about a Latin American philosophy. From this analysis, it was possible to understand the general lines of this debate; it was noticed the concepts of circumstantialism and historical circumstantialism, inherited from José Ortega y Gasset (1883 – 1955) as fundamental to philosophical development. It was evident that the philosophers claim, in their theses, the conceptual change in the meaning of an autochthonous philosophy differentiating itself from what, until then, had been imported. To answer this question, Leopoldo Zea defends a process of assimilating foreign philosophy, reallocating it to regional Latin American circumstances. In addition to these central analyses, this work dealt with a historical contextualization of the agents of this philosophical question. Having as a central point the colonizing process of the 15th century and how it influenced the philosophy practiced in the first half of the 20th century. The methodology used was essentially bibliographical research, based on articles, books, magazines, and digital media as support. At the end of this research, it was possible to perceive a vast material produced related to the question of a philosophy in Latin America, which are on the margins of the great debate produced in universities. Finally, we conclude that there is a great need for adherence to the theme by those involved in Philosophy in Latin America. Referring to Walter Mignolo (1941), it is a question of epistemic choice.