Stages and Features of Philosophy in Latin America

The development of philosophy in Latin America has also constituted, as in other latitudes, a process of mental and counter-hegemonic emancipation, one that involves overcoming alienating mechanisms. It has not been a simple mimetic reproduction of European philosophy. Latin American thinkers have addressed specific problems of their respective historical contexts using universal epistemological instruments and, at the same time, have contributed valuable ideas to the universal culture. The main stages, features, and representatives of philosophy in Latin America are synthetically analyzed. The existence of philosophy in its original civilizations is questioned. The debates on the human condition of the Indigenous people in scholasticism stand out; the contributions of Enlightenment philosophy to the development of science, education, and the promotion of independence; the roles of spiritualism, eclecticism, and romanticism in the ideological debate between conservatism and liberalism; the reasons for the progressive character and specificity of sui generis positivism, different from the European one; anti-positivism, which promotes a better understanding of man and Latin American cultural identity; the irrationalism of phenomenology and existentialism; particularities of Marxist philosophy, analytic philosophy, Christian philosophy, liberation philosophy, postmodernist philosophy and decolonial philosophy. The general characteristics of philosophy in the development are specified, especially practical and counter-hegemonic humanism, as a substantial part of Western and universal culture. There are multiple proofs of Latin American philosophical richness that the research of philosophical historiography demonstrates. One of its essential features has been the practical humanism, the authenticity and counter-hegemonic character of the ideas of its leading representatives, which have become a substantial part of Western and universal culture.