This course will introduce you some of the major figures and issues within philosophy in Latin America. The focal point of the course will be the connection between identity-formation and politics, and how these thinkers have conceptualized what it means to be from Latin America (a place that itself is by no means homogeneous or monolithic). We will therefore discuss history, colonialism, politics, culture, and other ways that we might begin to think about group identity. How active or reactive is it? What are its processes of formation? How stable is it? How does it form political groups? And to what ends? The goal of the course is to offer a body of philosophical works that contextualize the complex intellectual histories, traditions, and standpoints of the lands and peoples who are and have been called “Latin American.” As we will see, all of these terms will come under scrutiny, and we will spend the semester attempting to formulate just what it is that we understand by the term “Latin America,” and why.
Required Texts:
- José Enrique Rodó, Ariel
- Roberto Fernández Retamar, Caliban and Other Essays
- Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century: The Human Condition, Values, and the Search for Identity,
Jorge J.E. Gracia and Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert eds. - Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings
“Latin America/n” “Philosophy”
Week 1:
Enrique Dussel, “Philosophy in Latin American in Twentieth Century: Problems and Currents” in Latin American Philosophy: Currents and Debates (P 11-34)
Jorge J. E. Gracia, “Ethnic Labels and Philosophy: The Case of Latin American Philosophy” in Latin American Philosophy: Currents and Debates (P 57-67)
“Civilization and Barbarism”
Domingo Faustian Sarmiento, “Civilization and Barbarism” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 235-244)
Week 2:
José Enrique Rodó, Ariel (P 31-56)
José Enrique Rodó, Ariel (P 56-70)
José Enrique Rodó, Ariel (P 70-101)
Week 3:
Roberto Fernández Retamar, “Caliban” in Caliban and Other Essays (P 3-21)
Roberto Fernández Retamar, “Caliban” in Caliban and Other Essays (P 21-45)
Roberto Fernández Retamar, “Caliban Revisited” in Caliban and Other Essays (P 46-55)
History, Novelty, “Latin America”
Week 4:
Bartolomé de las Casas, “In Defense of the Indians” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 33-50)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, “Response to Sister Filotea” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 53-58)
María Luisa Femenías, “Philosophical Genealogies and Feminism in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz” in The Role of History in Latin American Philosophy (P 131-154)
Week 5:
Simon Bolívar, “Jamaica Letter” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 63-66)
Simon Bolívar, “Inauguration Address” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 67-74)
José Martí, “Our America” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 245-252)
Week 6:
José Vasconcelos, “The Cosmic Race” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 269-278)
Leopoldo Zea, “History and the Latin American Mind” §1-2 in The Role of the Americas in History (P 3-14)
Leopoldo Zea, “History and the Latin American Mind” §3-5 The Role of the Americas in History (P 14-27)
Week 7:
José Carlos Mariátegui, “The Problem of the Indian” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 259-266)
José Carlos Mariátegui, “The Unity of Indo-Hispanic America” in José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology (P 445-450)
Octavio Paz, “Mexican Masks” in The Labyrinth of Solitude (P 29-46)
Octavio Paz, “The Day of the Dead” in The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings (P 47-64)
Octavio Paz, “The Sons of La Malinche” in The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings (P 65-88)
Week 8:
Octavio Paz, “The Present Day” in The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings (P 175-194)
Octavio Paz, “The Dialectic of Solitude” in The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings (P 195-212)
Octavio Paz, “Mexico and the United States” in The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings (P 357-376)
Decolonizing “Latin America”
Week 9:
Walter D. Mignolo, “Philosophy and the Colonial Difference” in Latin American Philosophy: Currents, Issues, Debates (P 80-85)
Santiago Castro-Gómez, “Latin American Philosophy as Critical Ontology of the Present: Themes and Motifs for a ‘Critique of Latin American Reason’” in Latin American Philosophy: Currents, Issues, Debates (P 68-77)
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, “Epistemology, Ethics, and the Time/Space of Decolonization” in Decolonizing Epistemologies: Latina/o Theology and Philosophy (P 193-206)
María Lugones, “Toward a Decolonial Feminism” in Hypatia25.4 (P 742-759)
Week 10:
Anibal Quijano, “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism and Latin America” in Nepantla: Views from South 1.3 (P 533-580)
Enrique Dussel, “The ‘World-System’: Europe as ‘Center’ and Its “periphery’ beyond Eurocentrism” in Beyond Philosophy: Ethics, History, Marxism, and Liberation Theology (P 53-70)
The Workings of Politics
Week 11:
Ernesto Laclau, “Democracy and the Question of Power” in Constellations8.1 (P 3-14)
Ernesto Laclau, “The ‘People’ and the Discursive Production of Emptiness” in On Populist Reason (P 67-124)
Week 12:
Enrique Dussel, Theses 11-15 in Twenty Theses on Politics (P71-102)
Enrique Dussel, Theses 16-20 in Twenty Theses on Politics (P 103-138)
Enrique Dussel, “The ‘Reform-Transformation Question’” and “The ‘Question of Violence’” [§6.3-6.4] in Ethics of Liberation (P 388-413)
Week 13:
Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, “Rebuilding a Dissident Common Sense. An Interview with Raquel Gutiérrez”
http://www.makingworlds.org/rebuilding-a-dissident-common-sense-an-interview-with-raquel-gutierrez/
Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, “The Growing Tension between Emancipation, Autonomy, Self Governance, and State Reconstitution in 2005” in Rhythms of the Pachakuti: Indigenous Uprising and State Power in Bolivia (P 152-174)
Álvaro García Linera, “The Crisis of the State and the Period of Revolution” in Plebeian Power: Collective Action and Indigenous, Working-Class and Popular Identities in Bolivia
Contemporary Identities
Week 14:
Jorge J. E. Gracia, “What Makes Hispanics/Latinos Who We Are? The Key to Our Unity in Diversity” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 289-312)
Gloria Anzaldúa, “Movimientos de rebeldiá y las culturas que traicionan” in Borderlands/La Frontera (P 37-45)
Gloria Anzaldúa, “How To Tame a Wild Tongue” in Borderlands/La Frontera (P 75-86)
Linda Martín Alcoff, “Is Latina/o Identity a Racial Identity?” Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 313-336)
Week 15:
Ofelia Schutte, “Negotiating Latina Identities” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century (P 337-351)
Linda Martín Alcoff, “Sotomayor’s Reasoning” in Southern Journal of Philosophy 48.1 (P 122-138)
Jorge J.E. Gracia, “Can Hispanic Philosophy Flourish in the USA?” in Latin American Philosophy: An Introduction with Readings (P 302-307)