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The History of Ideas in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Harold Eugene Davis
Harold Eugene Davis*
Affiliation:
The American University
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Interest in Research on the History of Ideas in Latin America is Increasing, but the product is spotty and uneven. As might be exepcted, much of the important work has been done by Spanish Americans and Brazilians. In 1950, in his Social Science Trends in Latin America, the author pointed out the interest in intellectual history, especially in Mexico, Argentina, and Uruguay, and this interest has increased notably since that time.

Type
Topical Review
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , Fall 1968 , pp. 23 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 1968 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

∗

The author uses the terms history of ideas and history of thought interchangeably, in a broad sense that embraces both formal and informal thought. The term philosophy is used to refer to the more formal or structured thought; but it is given a somewhat broader sense than is currently customary in the United States, a sense that includes social and legal thought or theory, as well as the philosophical bases of such subjects as anthropology, economics, literature, and art.

References

Notes

1. Washington, D.C.: The American University Press and Inter-American Bibliographical Association, 1950.

2. José Luis Romero, Las ideas políticas en Argentina (1946), Guillermo Francovich, El pensamiento boliviano en el siglo xx (1956), João Cruz Costa, Esbozo de una historia de las ideas en el Brasil (1957), Ricardo Donoso, Las ideas políticas en Chile (1946), Victor Alba, Las ideas sociales contemporáneas en México (1960), Jesús Silva Herzog, El agrarismo Mexicano y la reforma agraria (1959) and El pensamiento económico en México (1947), Arturo Ardao, Espiritualismo y positivismo en el Uruguay (1956) and La filosofía en el Uruguay en el siglo xx (1956), and Rafael Heliodoro Valle, Historia de las ideas contemporáneas en Centro-América (1960). This Mexican publishing house also brought out Antonio Gómez Robledo, Idea y experiencia de América (1958), a brilliant critique of the development of the ideas of inter-Americanism.

3. Valle, prólogo de Rafael Heliodoro Valle (1934). González Prada: Prólogo y selección de Andrés Henestrosa (1943), Montalvo, prólogo y selección de Manuel Sánchez (1942), Vasconcelos, Prólogo de Genaro Fernández MacGregor (1942), Varona. Prólogo de José Antonio Fernández de Castro (1943). Some publications of the National University in a sense form part of the series, e.g. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Selección, notas biográficas y comentario de Pedro de Alba (1944), the volume of José Luis Mora, Ensayos, ideas y retratos, edited with a prologue by Arturo Arnáiz y Freg (1941) and Justo Sierra. Prosas: prólogo y selección de Antonio Caso (1939).

4. An incomplete list includes: Emilio Oribe, El pensamiento vivo de Rodó (1944), Ricardo Rojas, El pensamiento vivo de Sarmiento (1941), R. Blanco-Fombona, El pensamiento vivo de Bolívar (1942), German Arciniegas, El pensamiento vivo de Andrés Bello (1946).

5. Leopoldo Zea, The Latin American Mind, translated by James H. Abbot and Lowell Dunham (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963). Other translations of this character published in recent years include Mariano Picón Salas, A Cultural History of Spanish America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 1962); Samuel Ramos, Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico, trans. by Peter G. Earle (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962); José Luis Romero, A History of Argentine Political Thought, trans. by Thomas F. McGann (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963); José Vasconcelos, A Mexican Ulysses, an Autobiography, trans. by W. Rex Crawford (Bloomington: University of Indiana, 1963); João Cruz Costa, A History of Ideas in Brazil, trans. by Suzett Macedo (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1964); Miguel León Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind, trans. by Jack Emory Davis (Norman; University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), Ángel del Rio, The Clash and Attraction of Two Cultures: the Hispanic and the Anglo-Saxon Worlds in America, trans. by James F. Shearer (Baton Rouge: State University of Louisiana, 1965), Robert Ricard, The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico. An Essay on the Apostolate and the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders of New Spain, 1523–1572, trans. by Harold V. Livermore. 2 vols. (University of Texas Press, 1965).

6. Volumes published to the end of 1967 include: Alberdi-Sarmiento (6) 1964, Donoso Cortés (12) 1965, Suárez (1) 1966, Vitoria (2) 1967, and Rodó-Zorilla de San Martín (7) 1967. Other volumes are announced for Juan de Mariana, Jovellanos-Feijóo, San Martín-Bolívar-O'Higgins, Joaquín Costa-Angel Ganivet, José Manuel Estrada-José Hernández, Ramiro de Maeztu, Mariano Egaña-Andrés Bello, Bartolomé Herrera-Victor Andrés Belaúnde-Victoriano de Villava, Juan Vázquez de Mella, Justo Sierra-José Vasconcelos, Montalvo-Hostos-González Prada-Martí, José Antonio Primo de Rivera (17), Rafael Nuñez-Miguel Antonio Caro-Jose María Samper (18), José Gil Fortoul-Juan Francisco Quijano-José Cecilio del Valle (19). Volume 20 will include the thought of the “dictators” Rosas, García Moreno, Francia, Francisco Solano López, and Ramón Castillo.

7. México: El Colegio de México, 1949. A revised and enlarged edition in two volumes, appeared in 1965, with the title El pensamiento hispano-americano (Mexico: Editorial Pormaca, copyright with The Macmillan Company, N.Y.).

8. See the two numbers of the Revista, Numbers 1 and 2, issued in Quito, Ecuador, 1959 and 1960. Unfortunately suspended, this journal was intended to be a forum for the exchange of ideas and knowledge on this subject.

9. “Localizatión histórica del pensamiento hispano-americano,” in No. 4 (1942), pp. 63–86; “Caracterización formal y material del pensamiento hispano-americano,” in No. 6 (1942) pp. 59–88; and “Significación filosófica del pensamiento hispano-americano” in Vol. II (1943) pp. 63–86.

10. A Century of Latin American Thought (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1944; 2nd ed., 1961).

11. Op. cit., pp. 4–5.

12. Historia de la sociologia en Latinoamérica (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1940).

13. La Habana: Imprenta Universitaria, 1953.

14. Panorama de la sociología contemporánea (México: Casa de España en México, 1940.)

15. Manfredo Kempf Mercado, Historia de la filosofía en Latino-América (Santiago, Chile: Zig-Zag, 1958; Francisco Larroyo, La filosofía americana: su razón y su sinrazon de ser. (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1958).

16. Op. cit., pp. 191–192.

17. 2 vols. (Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Políticos, 1966).

18. Vol. II, pp. 38,252.

19. Fuentes de la filosofía latinoamericana (Washington, D.C.: Unión Panamericana, 1967).

20. See the facsimile edition: El Epítome de Pinelo, Primera Bibliografía del Nuevo Mundo, with preliminary study by Augustín Millares Carlo (Washington, D.C.: Pan American Union, 1958).

21. Reprinted by the Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico José Toribo Medina, with a prologue by Aniceto Almeyda (Santiago de Chile, 1956). On Medina see Maury A. Bromsen, ed., José Toribio Medina: Humanist of the Americas, (Washington, D.C.: Pan American Union, 1960); Sergio Villalobos, Medina, su vida y sus obras, 1852–1930 (Santiago de Chile: Imp. Universitaria, 1952); and Armando Donoso, José Toribio Medina, 1852–1930 (Santiago de Chile: Imp. Universitaria, 1952).

22. Buenos Aires, 1910.

23. Buenos Aires: El Ateneo, 1951. 2 vols. First published 1918–20.

24. A filosofía no Brasil (Porto Alegre, 1878).

25. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1938.

26. Origins of Inter-American Interest (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1945), pp. 55–56.

27. Intellectual Background of the Revolution in South America (New York: 1926).

28. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1945.

29. Gainesville: University of Florida, 1961.

30. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1949.

31. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1929.

32. Academic Culture in the Spanish Colonies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1940). The other two works were published by the Cornell University Press in 1955 and 1956, respectively.

33. The papers were published as Latin America and the Enlightenment, Arthur Whitaker, ed. (New York: Appleton-Century, 1942).

34. Vol. I, 301–320.

35. The Struggle for Justice in the Spanish Conquest of America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1949), Aristotle and The American Indians (London: Hollis Carter, 1959), Bartolomé de las Casas: an Interpretation of his Life and Writings (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1951); with Manuel Giménez Fernández, Bartolomé de las Casas (Santiago de Chile: Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico José Toribio Medina, 1954). See also his “The Dawn of Conscience in America: Spanish Experiments and Experiences with Indians in The New World,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 107 (April, 1963), No. 2, pp. 83–92. On sixteenth century humanism see Bernardo G. Monsegú, C.P., Filosofía del humanismo de Juan Luis Vives (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1961).

36. Filosofía de la conquista (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1947).

37. Washington, D.C.: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1951.

38. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) (México: Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, 1952); Vol. IX in the series, Historiadores de América.

39. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Suma Indiana. Introducción y selección de Mauricio Magdaleno (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma, 1943).

40. Op. cit.

41. See especially his “La legislación indiana como elemento de la historia de las ideas coloniales españolas,” Revista de Historia de América, No. 1 (1937), 1–24.

42. El pensamiento tradicional en la España del siglo xviii (1700–1760); introducción para un estudio de las ideas jurídico-politícas españolas en dicho período histórico (Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Políticos, 1966).

43. Humanismo em Portugal (Lisbon, 1956), cited in João Cruz Costa, Panorama of the History of Philosophy in Brazil (Washington: Pan American Union, 1962), p. 18.

44. Cited by Cruz Costa, Op. cit., p. 16.

45. The Eighteenth Century Enlightenment in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1956). Cf. José Mata Gavidia, Panorama filosófico de la universidad de San Carlos al final del siglo xviii (Guatemala: Universidad de Guatemala, 1948) and Ramón A. Salazar, Historia del desenvolvimiento intelectual de Guatemala, t.1 (Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional, 1897).

46. La Habana: Publicaciones del Ministerio de Educación, 1952.

47. Buenos Aires: Guillermo Kraft, 1952.

48. See his previously cited The Eighteenth Century Enlightenment in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala, p. vi.

49. Las ideas políticas en Argentina (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1946), p. 60.

50. Las ideas sociales contemporáneas en México, (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1960), p. 18.

51. El agrarismo mexicano y la reforma agraria (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1959), pp. 29–33.

52. Most United States scholars, including Crawford, have assumed the primacy of the influence of Rousseau as presented in Jefferson Rea Spell, Rousseau in The Spanish World before 1833 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1938) and in José Manuel Restrepo, Historia de la revolución de la Republica de Colombia en la América Meridional (Bensanzon, 1858). Crawford writes (Op. cit., p. 8) that Latin America had followed Rousseau and the ideals of the French Revolution.

53. See, among many who might be cited, Ariosto D. González, Las primeras formulas constitucionales en los paises del Plata (Montevideo: Barreiro y Ramos, 1962).

54. Nacimiento y desarrollo de la filosofía en el Rio de la Plata (Buenos Aires: Guillermo Kraft, 1952).

55. Carlos Stoetzer, El pensamiento político en la América Española durante el período de la emancipación (1789–1825); las bases hispánicas y las corrientes europeas (Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Políticos, 1966).

56. Augusto Mijares, La interpretacion pesimista de la sociologia hispanoamericano, 2d. ed. (Madrid: Afrodisio Aguado, 1952). El Libertador, 2d ed. (Caracas: Ed. Arte, 1965).

57. See Revista del Instituto de Historia del Derecho Ricardo Levene (18 numbers published to 1967).

58. For example, José Ingenieros, La evolución de las argentinas (Buenos Aires: Rosso, 1937); Mariano Ibérico y Rodríguez, “La filosofía en el Perú,” Mercurio Peruano, Año IV, Vol. IV (Lima, 1921), Luis Alberto Sánchez, La literatura peruana, 3 vols. (Lima, 1928, 1929, Santiago, 1936) Alberto Zum Felde, Proceso intelectual del Uruguay (Montevideo; Claridad, 1941).

59. (Mexico: El Colegio de México, 1949) Hereinafter cited as Dos etapas. An English transaltion by James H. Abbott and Lowell Dunham appeared in 1963 (University of Oklahoma Press). The author has also produced a revised edition, El pensamiento lationamericano (México: Pormaca, 1965), which contains some of the ideas he published in an article in Cudernos Americanos referred to below. See note 68.

60. El positivismo en México, 2d. ed. (Mexico: Ed. Studium, 1953) was issued first in 1943; Apogeo y decadencia del positivismo en México (México: El Colegio de México, 1944).

61. Dos etapas, p. 12.

62. Los grandes problemas nacionales (México: Imp. de A. Carranza e Hijos, 1909) and La revolución agraria de México (México: Talleres Gráficos del Museo Nacional, 1934).

63. Dos etapas, pp. 34–43.

64. P. 45. Author's translation.

65. See especially “Localización histórica del pensamiento hispano-americano,” in No. 4 (1942), pp. 63–86.

66. See footnote 10.

67. Guillermo Francovich, Filósofos brasileños (Buenos Aires: Ed. Losada, 1943); Antonio Gómez Robledo, La filosofía en el Brasil (Mexico: Imp. Universitaria, 1946); Nelson Werneck Sodré, Orientacões do pensamento brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Vecchi, 1942); Guillermo Francovich, La filosofía en Bolivia (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1945); Medardo Vitier, La filosofía en Cuba (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1948); Ricardo Donoso, Las ideas politicas en Chile (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1946); Arturo Ardao, La filosofia pre-universitaria en el Uruguay (Monteviedo: Ed. García, 1945).

68. “Latinoamérica en la formación de nuestro tiempo,” No. 5 (Septiembre-Octubre, 1965) examined by the author in a sobretiro of 68 pages. An article by William D. Raat, “Leopoldo Zea and Mexican Positivism: A Reappraisal,” Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. XLVIII, No. 1 (February 1968), 1–18, appeared shortly after this article had been written. Chiefly a criticism of Zea's methodology, it serves to confirm the influence of the Orteguian pattern on Zea's synthesis.

69. Op. cit., p. 10.

70. P. 11.

71. Dos etapas, p. 16: translated in The Latin American Mind, p. 4.

72. Dos etapas, “Introducción,” pp. 15–29.

73. Ibid., p. 54.

74. “Latinoamérica en la formación de nuestro tiempo,” loc. cit., pp. 15–16.

75. See, for example, Karl M. Schmitt, “The Mexican Positivists and the Church State Question,” Church and State, VIII, No. 1 (Spring, 1966), pp. 200–213.

76. See the author's Latin American Social Thought (University Press of Washington, D.C., 1961), especially pp. 100–101. In addition, these statements were written before the appearance of Raat's article listed in note 68.

77. Cf. Robert E. McNicoll, “Hegel and Latin America Today,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, VI, No. 1 (January 1964) 129–131.

78. See Allen Skotheim, American Intellectual Histories and Historians (Princeton University Press, 1966).

79. See, for example, Carlos Valderrama Andrade, El pensamiento filosófico de Miguel Antonio Caro (Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuevo, 1961).

80. On Lammenais see Volume 7 of the Lousteau-Heguy-Lozada series, devoted to Rodó and Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, which includes a significant lecture of the latter on the Rerum Novarum. For the probable influence of Lammenais on Juan Montalvo see Frank Mac D. Spindler, The Political Thought of Juan Montalvo (Ph.D. dissertation, The American University, 1966).

81. See footnote 2.

82. See Las ideas sociales contemporáneas en México (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1960).

83. Among many works, see La literatura peruana, 2v. (Lima, 1928–1929).

84. See his “Notas sobre la historiografía chilena,” in Atenea (Universidad de Concepción) Año XXXI, t.xcv, Nos. 291–292 (Sept.-Oct. 1949) 345–377. His study of Encina is in Tres ensayos históricos (Santiago: Instituto Nacional, 1950).

85. Las ideas sociales en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Ed. Platina and Ed. Stilcograf, 1965).

86. Hispanic American Historical Review, XLV, No. 4 (Nov. 1965) 576–590.

87. Carlos M. Rama, Mouvements ouvriers et socialistes (Paris: Ed. Ouvrières, 1950) and Historia del movimiento obrero y social latinoamericano contemporáneo (Buenos Aires: Ed. Palestra, 1967); Moises Poblete Troncoso, El movimiento obrero latinoamericano (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1946); also M. Poblete Troncoso and Ben G. Burnet, The Rise of the Latin American Labor Movement (New York: Bookman Associates, 1960).

88. On krausismo see Juan López Morillas, El krausismo español (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1956).

89. El misoneísmo y la modernidad cristiana en el siglo xviii (México: El Colegio de México, 1948).

90. But see John J. Kennedy, Catholicism, Nationalism and Democracy in Argentina (Notre Dame University Press, 1958).

91. Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind, trans. by Jack Emory Davis (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963).