Pre-Columbian Latin American Philosophy

A particular 21st century understanding of the Aztec concept nepantla, one which has recently taken hold in critical education thanks to the writings of Gloria Anzaldúa, does not accurately reflect traditional Aztec history and philosophy. This essay reveals why this is the case, demonstrating in detail the meaning of nepantla within the broader Aztec ontology. It then asks education researchers and practitioners to instead use the theoretical framework of malinalli, the Aztec philosophical concept which best aligns with transformative social justice (...) goals. (shrink)

Our paper examines Gloria Anzaldúa’s critical appropriation of Mexican philosophical sources, especially in the writing of Borderlands/La Frontera. We demonstrate how Anzaldúa developed a transnational Philosophy of Mexicanness, effectively contributing to what has been recently characterized as the “multi-generational project to pursue philosophy from and about Mexican circumstances” (Vargas). More specifically, we recover “La Mexicana en la Chicana” by paying careful attention to Anzaldúa’s Mexican sources, both those she explicitly cites and those we have discovered while conducting archival research using (...) the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers from the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. The three sections of our paper: 1) define the terms Mexican and philosophy in conversation with Anzaldúa’s work, 2) examine the Mexican philosophical sources that Anzaldúa cites in Borderlands/La Frontera, and 3) present the other major Mexican philosophical influences on Anzaldúa that we have found in her archive. The eight Mexican philosophical sources we discuss here include: José Vasconcelos (1882-1959), Miguel León-Portilla (1926-2019), Juana Armanda Alegría (1938- ), Octavio Paz (1914-1998), Samuel Ramos (1897-1959), Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974), Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz (1648-1695), and Jorge Carrión (1913-2005). (shrink)

This essay takes a first step in comparative ethics by looking to Aristotle and the Aztec's conceptions of the good life. It argues that the Aztec conception of a rooted life, neltiliztli, functions for ethical purposes in a way that is like Aristotle's eudaimonia. To develop this claim, it not only shows just in what their conceptions of the good consist, but also in what way the Aztecs conceived of the virtues (in qualli, in yectli).

The foundational concepts of traditional Aztec metaphysics can benefit relations between LGBT students and teachers and their heterosexual peers. Because LGBT students and teachers suffer academic grievances at rates which their straight colleagues do not, they are in need of sound mechanisms for redress. The ethical stances implicit in the Aztec ontological simple teotl and the three motion-changes through which it acts – olin, malinalli, and nepantla – offer novel ways of approaching positive socialization between groups with differing social qualities (...) and perceptions. Specifically, the activity of the perpetually processive teotl through the ‘twistedness’ of malinalli promises both respect for difference and the recognition that all individuals are inhabitants of a greater cosmos. The Aztecs routinely conceived of malinalli as those actions which have profound transformative and productive powers. Malinalli rituals as characterized through traditional Aztec metaphors can serve as tools for classroom interaction which bridge the social divide between sexual minorities and the heterosexual majority. (shrink)

El artículo a partir de fuentes iconográficas, estudia la sustitución de los símbolos imperiales españoles por nuevos símbolos republicanos a principios del siglo XIX, destacando obras como las alegorías de la libertad y la patria para el caso colombiano. Estos emblemas tuvieron su origen en las representaciones de América del siglo XVI, pero con las autonomías y las posteriores independencias se convierten en los primeros símbolos de identidad de las nacientes repúblicas. The article, based on iconographic sources, studies the substitution (...) of imperial Spanish symbols by new republican symbols at the beginning of the 19th century, emphasizing some works as the allegories of Freedom and the Mother land in the case of Colombia. These emblems had their origin in the representations of America of the 16th century, however, initially, with their autonomies and later independences they turn into the first symbols of identity of the blossoming republics. (shrink)

La cosmovisión mítica de las sociedades prehispánicas no dio paso a una visión filosófica, como sí sucedió en la sociedad griega. ¿Es viable filosofar hoy desde algún mito precolombino?, la aparente ingenuidad de esta pregunta esconde un conjunto de problemas que es necesario deslindar. En la acepción peyorativa del mito como cuento o historia. ¿Qué es lo que hoy merece convertirse en asunto de una consideración filosófica? Desde Heidegger algunos filósofos entienden que el gran “mito” de la ciencia y la (...) técnica se erige hoy con una pretensión de verdad unilateral que hay que desenmascarar. Sin embargo, el mito en otra acepción tiene como función desocultar lo sagrado, lo originario. Esto es patente en los mitos prehispánicos, el mito da sentido al mundo de la vida. Según Gadamer la razón ilustrada no es la definitiva superación del mito; es acaso “nuestro mito” secular, con sus bondades y sus patologías. Quizá más que superar el mito, sea posible pensarlo como una experiencia que nunca puede dejar de incluir un tipo de racionalidad. (shrink)

The hermeneutic resources necessary for understanding Indigenous women’s lives in Latin America have been obscured by the tools of Western feminist philosophical practices and their travel in North-South contexts. Not only have ongoing practices of European colonization disrupted pre-colonial ways of knowing, but colonial lineages create contemporary public policies, institutions, and political structures that reify and solidify colonial epistemologies as the only legitimate forms of knowledge. I argue that understanding this foreclosure of Amerindian linguistic communities’ ability to collectively engage in (...) interpretive processes of culture and be heard and understood as coherent is an essential background condition to conceiving and theorizing the multiplicity of social oppressions and their intersections in contemporary Latin American contexts. Further, the work of disrupting and disobeying colonial interpretive frameworks has long been practiced by Indigenous women in Latin America, whose testimonies and expressions have been made sub-audible by design in colonial systems of meaning-making. This is part of the extensive legacy of the long quillwork of communal alphabets of survival. (shrink)

El trabajo aborda el papel que ha desempeñado el mestizaje en el proceso de formación y desarrollo de la cultura latinoamericana. El arte ha sido uno de los ámbitos privilegiados de expresión del mestizaje latinoamericano. Se analizan algunos ejemplos sobre las “hibridaciones de la imagen” у "las creaciones mestizas" en la época colonial mexicaпa, en particular, de aquellas que se conocen como iconos que fueron “colonizados por el cielo” у tienen alas. Nos referimos а las mariposas, las cuales poseen su (...) simbolismo particular en diferentes pueЫos. Para ello se exploran cieгtas imágenes mestizas de la mariposa en la edad novohispana. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Contact‐Period Indigenous Andean Philosophy Contact‐Era Aztec or Nahua Philosophy Conclusion References.

The author describes a peripatetic course aiming at undermining ethnocentric biases that are at the root of certain failures of miscommunication. The course involves a description of two semiotic models (the Saussarian and Peircean) and their application to cases of communication involving radical cultural difference, specifically the interpretive efforts of both conquering Spaniards and conquered Native Americans. Since the Peircean semiotic model requires a contextual-understanding of the Other in order for successful communication, the author contends that it is necessary for (...) philosophy courses to be both historically oriented and provide greater global awareness. To this end, the author gives an account of a philosophy course involving ten American liberal arts students who retrace the route of Spanish conquistadors form Veracruz to Mexico City and that of Dominican missionaries from Oaxaca to Chiapas. (shrink)

For undergraduate/graduate courses in Latin American Philosophy, Latin American Thought, Multicultural Philosophy, Latino Culture and Civilization, and Hispanic Culture and Civilization in the Departments of Philosophy, Latin American Studies, Political Science, Romance Languages, and Chicano Studies. The most comprehensive anthology in its field, 'Latin American philosophy' offers the reflections of Latin American thinkers on the nature of philosophy, justice, human rights, cultural identity, and other issues that have faced them from the colonial period to the present day. Most of the (...) essays are short and easy to read making them accessible to students with little or no philosophical background. (shrink)

Sixteenth-century Nahua philosophy understands neltiliztli (truth) and tlamitilizli (wisdom, knowledge) nonsemantically in terms of a complex notion consisting of well-rootedness, alethia ,authenticity, adeptness, moral righteousness, beauty, and balancedness. In so doing, it offers compelling a posteriori grounds for denying what Alvin Goldman calls veritism .Veritism defends the universality of correspondence (semantic) truth as well as the universal centrality of correspondence (semantic) truth to epistemology. Key Words: truth • veritism • Nahua philosophy • Aztec philopsophy • mesoamerican philosophy • teotl • (...) Alvin Goldman • Martin Heidegger. (shrink)

Lecture 1. Beginnings -- Lecture 2. Western metaphysics -- Lecture 3. Soul & body -- Lecture 4. The good life & the role of reason -- Lecture 5. Western & African thought compared -- Lecture 6. Traditional beliefs & philosophy -- Lecture 7. American Indian thinking -- Lecture 8. Mesoamerican thought -- Lecture 9. Ethics & social thought in Latin America -- Lecture 10. Indian thought on supreme reality -- Lecture 11. The dualism of the Samkhya school -- Lecture 12. (...) Vedic thought & Monism -- Lecture 13. The Bhagavad Gita -- Lecture 14. The Buddha's teachings -- Lecture 15. Theravada & Mahayana Buddhism -- Lecture 16. Nagarjuna's interpretation of Buddhism -- Lecture 17. The Chinese conception of reality -- Lecture 18. Confucius -- Lecture 19. Confucian virtue -- Lecture 20. Confucian schools, Mencius & Xunzi -- Lecture 21. The Daoist response to Confucianism -- Lecture 22. Daoism & early Buddhism in China -- Lecture 23. Buddhism in China & Japan -- Lecture 24. Synthesis. (shrink)

The _Dictionary of World Philosophy_ covers the diverse and challenging terminology, concepts, schools and traditions of the vast field of world philosophy. Providing an extremely comprehensive resource and an essential point of reference in a complex and expanding field of study the _Dictionary_ covers all major subfields of the discipline. Key features: * Cross-references are used to highlight interconnections and the cross-cultural diffusion and adaptation of terms which has taken place over time * The user is led from specific terms (...) to master entries which provide valuable historical and cultural context * Each master entry is followed by at least two suggestions for further reading on the subject, creating a substantial bibliography of world philosophy * References extend beyond philosophy to related areas such as cognitive science, computer science, language and physics Subdisciplines covered include:* aesthetics * ethics * sociopolitical philosophy * the philosophy of law * epistemology * logic * the philosophy of science * the philosophy of mind * the philosophy of culture and history * metaphysics * the philosophy of religion Entries are drawn from West Africa, Arabic, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Jewish, Korean, Latin American, Maori and Native American philosophy including the important and so far largely neglected instance of Pre-Hispanic thought: Nahua philosophy. (shrink)

Las culturas maya, azteca e inca habían desarrollado hasta el S. XVI originales y complejas estructuras de pensamiento. La superposición de la cultura europea hizo posible el traslado de la filosofía, que tiene ya una presencia ininterrumpida de más de cuatro siglos y medio. Sin embargo, ese proceso filosófico, visto desde la perspectiva de la problemática indígena actual, evidencia que no ha podido lograrse todavía, a través de la reflexión, una síntesis armoniosa que exprese los legados culturales indígena y occidental. (...) En cambio, tanto lafilosofía inculturada como la filosofía de la liberación, por sus postulados teóricos y de praxis, aspiran a esa anhelada síntesis cultural. (shrink)

The essays in this book are concerned with the intellectual development of the Spanish Empire in America from 1492 until Independence in the 1820s. The first section deals with the creation of a powerful language of natural law in the 16th and 17th centuries. The second explores the ways in which this was used to account for, and to deprecate, the cultures of the Native Americas. The final section traces the emergence of Enlightenment modes of approaching the subject of âe~Othersâe(tm), (...) both in Europe and the New World, and charts the emergence of a separate cultural identity among the creole population of the Americas. (shrink)

The controversy over the possibility of an indigenous Latin American Philosophy might be understood as dealing with an older question about the nature of philosophy itself: Is the nature of philosophy purely speculative, practical, or both? For the sake of argument, I am using the term “Latin American Philosophy” in a normative sense as referring to social and political philosophy written by Latin Americans to change oppressive conditions and policies affecting their societies. I am assuming that liberation philosophers fall under (...) the above description. Unlike liberationists, I argue that universalist philosophers can present illuminating and hence persuasive arguments for their position. Of course, liberationists might argue that I am begging the question. But if they could successfully demonstrate that I am doing so, they would be compelled to appeal to at least some nonarbitrary principle of adjudication. If they were to do so, they would be supporting rather than undermining my argument in favor of a universalist conception of philosophy. (shrink)

This paper continues a dialogue begun in the Focus on Cosmogony and Religious Ethics published in JRE 14/1 (Spring, 1986). There Charles Reynolds and Ronald Green argued for a model of comparative religious ethics that seeks to locate certain "descriptive universals" across cultural boundaries in diverse forms of religious ethics. The present paper argues that this approach is dangerously imbalanced in its emphasis on similarities, ignoring the importance of diversity for interpreting cross-cultural phenomena and tending to impose a heterogeneous conceptual (...) framework on all religious ethical systems examined. Using the case of the Aztec ethic, the paper argues instead for an approach that studies each particular system in depth in its own context. Such an approach, besides being more faithful to each system being examined, also carries the potential of enriching the search for universals by nuancing the description of the patterns being sought. (shrink)

Two oppositional, yet complementary, sets of myths are presented here. These sets appear based on a concept of transformation which implies that the cosmos will collapse if a paradigm of human sacrifice is not followed-a paradigm for moral action utilized by Aztec kings in an amoral universe requiring constant nourishment. Models of this paradigm are seen to shape ethical decisions in two different examples: (a) crises of drought, and (b) problems of childraising. It is suggested that this moral and ethical (...) information is presented to us, in varied sources, as an ontological reality which was gained by the direct experiencing of rituals participated in from infancy to death. (shrink)

Part of our fascination with the Maya can be attributed to the fact that they were literate . . . that is, the Classic Maya possessed a visible language that consisted of letters and a grammar, and one of the products of their literacy was the book. (Aveni 1992b, p.3).