Abstract

Compared to philosophers, the leading Latin American novelists, poets, and playwrights are relatively well known in the United States and many of their works are available in English translations. The Latin American philosophers, however, are an unknown quantity--not only to the reading public at large, but also to practically all U.S. philosophic and scholastic communities. Yet, Latin America contains a number of important original thinkers whose works would reward study here. Philosophical concepts developed in an ambient of young and not yet fully-formed nations, without a long national cultural tradition of their own and struggling to overcome semi-primitive economic and political conditions, are bound to add some interesting dimensions to what is commonly called the "philosophy of the western world." This is particularly true when the philosophizers are distinguished--as they are in many cases--by a personal moral commitment to social and political involvement and activity. Jose Vasconcelos was such a figure. The volume under review gives us our first English summary of Vasconcelos' whole philosophical system: his metaphysics, his epistemology, his ethics and his aesthetics. It also ties in his social and political philosophy and some biographical details. The full impact of Vasconcelos' aesthetic monism comes through clearly, concisely and forcefully in nine carefully-chosen selections in the Appendix. It is to be hoped that this little volume portends a new trend toward making available in English the works of other outstanding Latin American philosophers.--H. B.