Leopoldo Zea Aguilar
Encyclopedia
Leopoldo Zea was a Mexican
philosopher
.
One of the integral Latin Americanism thinkers in history, Zea became famous thanks to his master's thesis, El Positivismo en México (Positivism in Mexico - 1943), with which he applied and studied positivism
in the context of his country and the world during the transition between the 19th and 20th centuries. With it he began the defense of the American Integration, first suggested by the Liberator and Statesman Simón Bolívar
, giving it his own interpretation based in the context of neocolonialism
during the separation of the American Empire and Mexico.
In his works, Zea demonstrates that historical facts aren't independent from ideas, and that they do not arise from what is considered unusual, but from simple reactions to certain situations of human life.
In his vision of a united Latin America
, he defended his beliefs concerning the place of mankind in the region. Zea explained that the discovery of 1492 was nothing more than a concealment in cultural and known terms, a product of the ideological cross-breeding of the configuration of the Latin American identity, a matter which he revealed on the 5th centenary in 1992. Later, he studied the ontological
analysis of Latin America in the cultural and geo-historical planes.
Being of poor origin, Zea worked in 1933 in the office of Telégrafos Nacionales to help afford the costs of his secondary and university education
.
Zea was associated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM) beginning with his training as a Professor and Philosopher in 1943. In 1947 he founded the Faculty of Philosophy and gave lectures on History of ideas in America. In 1954, he was appointed to a full-time position as a researcher at the Philosophical Studies Center of the University. In 1966 he became Director of the Faculty, holding this position until 1970. During his time as Director he founded the Latin American Studies College (in 1966) and later founded the Coordination and Propagation Center of the UNAM Latin American Studies (1978). He received multiple awards including the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in 1980, the Premio Interamericano de Cultura "Gabriela Mistral" (of the OAS
) and the Medalla Belisario Domínguez (of the Senate of Mexico
) in 2000. Three years later he was cataloged and honored by the UNAM as the oldest professor to work continually without interruptions until his death.
Zea was compared to many diverse political, revolutionary, and intellectual personalities, such as Germán Arciniegas
(who was his friend), Che Guevara
, José Gaos
(his mentor), Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
, Andrés Bello
, Simón Bolívar
, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
and others.
His philosophy
embodied his concept of a united Latin America, not in the terms of a utopia
, but based in reality, and the renewal of the fight for a people in demand for said change. As a result, he opened up the discourse to other scholars of the subject in the future.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
.
One of the integral Latin Americanism thinkers in history, Zea became famous thanks to his master's thesis, El Positivismo en México (Positivism in Mexico - 1943), with which he applied and studied positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
in the context of his country and the world during the transition between the 19th and 20th centuries. With it he began the defense of the American Integration, first suggested by the Liberator and Statesman Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
, giving it his own interpretation based in the context of neocolonialism
Neocolonialism
Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country in lieu of direct military or political control...
during the separation of the American Empire and Mexico.
In his works, Zea demonstrates that historical facts aren't independent from ideas, and that they do not arise from what is considered unusual, but from simple reactions to certain situations of human life.
In his vision of a united Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, he defended his beliefs concerning the place of mankind in the region. Zea explained that the discovery of 1492 was nothing more than a concealment in cultural and known terms, a product of the ideological cross-breeding of the configuration of the Latin American identity, a matter which he revealed on the 5th centenary in 1992. Later, he studied the ontological
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
analysis of Latin America in the cultural and geo-historical planes.
Being of poor origin, Zea worked in 1933 in the office of Telégrafos Nacionales to help afford the costs of his secondary and university education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
.
Zea was associated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...
(UNAM) beginning with his training as a Professor and Philosopher in 1943. In 1947 he founded the Faculty of Philosophy and gave lectures on History of ideas in America. In 1954, he was appointed to a full-time position as a researcher at the Philosophical Studies Center of the University. In 1966 he became Director of the Faculty, holding this position until 1970. During his time as Director he founded the Latin American Studies College (in 1966) and later founded the Coordination and Propagation Center of the UNAM Latin American Studies (1978). He received multiple awards including the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in 1980, the Premio Interamericano de Cultura "Gabriela Mistral" (of the OAS
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
) and the Medalla Belisario Domínguez (of the Senate of Mexico
Senate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
) in 2000. Three years later he was cataloged and honored by the UNAM as the oldest professor to work continually without interruptions until his death.
Zea was compared to many diverse political, revolutionary, and intellectual personalities, such as Germán Arciniegas
Germán Arciniegas
Germán Arciniegas was a Colombian essayist and historian. Arciniegas wrote over 50 books and many columns in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo and also taught at Columbia University in New York.- Books :...
(who was his friend), Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
, José Gaos
José Gaos
José Gaos was a Spanish-born philosopher who obtained political asylum in Mexico during the Spanish Civil War....
(his mentor), Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre was a Peruvian political leader who founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance political movement.-Life:Haya de la Torre was born in the northern Peruvian city of Trujillo...
, Andrés Bello
Andrés Bello
Andrés de Jesús María y José Bello López was a Venezuelan humanist, poet, lawmaker, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute an important part of Spanish American culture...
, Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the seventh President of Argentina. His writing spanned a wide range of genres and topics, from journalism to autobiography, to political philosophy and history...
and others.
His philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
embodied his concept of a united Latin America, not in the terms of a utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
, but based in reality, and the renewal of the fight for a people in demand for said change. As a result, he opened up the discourse to other scholars of the subject in the future.
Publications
- Superbus Philosophus
- El positivismo en México. Nacimiento, apogeo y decadencia
- Apogeo y decadencia del positivismo en México
- En torno a una filosofía americana
- Esquema para una historia del pensamiento en México
- Ensayos sobre filosofía de la historia
- Dos etapas del pensamiento en Hispanoamérica
- Conciencia y posibilidad del mexicano
- La filosofía como compromiso y otros ensayos
- América como conciencia
- La conciencia del hombre en la filosofía. Introducción à la filosofía
- El Occidente y la conciencia de México
- América en la conciencia de Europa
- La filosofía en México
- Del liberalismo à la revolución en la educación mexicana
- Esquema para una historia de las ideas en Iberoamérica
- América en la historia
- Las ideas en Iberoamérica en el siglo XIX
- La cultura y el hombre de nuestros días
- Democracia y dictaduras en Latinoamérica
- Dos ensayos
- Latinoamérica y el mundo
- Europa al margen de Occidente
- Antología del pensamiento social y político en América Latina
- Latinoamérica en la formación de nuestro tiempo
- El pensamiento latinoamericano
- Antología de la filosofía americana contemporánea
- La filosofía americana como filosofía sin más
- Colonización y descolonización de la cultura latinoamericana
- La esencia de lo americano
- Latinoamérica. Emancipación y neocolonialismo
- Los precursores del pensamiento latinoamericano contemporáneo
- Dependencia y liberación en la cultura latinoamericana
- Dialéctica de la conciencia americana
- La filosofía actual en América Latina (Coauthor)
- Filosofía latinoamericana
- Filosofía y cultura latinoamericanas
- Latinoamérica, Tercer Mundo
- Filosofía de la historia americana
- Pensamiento positivista latinoamericano (Selection and prologue)
- Simón Bolívar, integración en libertad
- Desarrollo de la creación cultural latinoamericana
- Latinoamérica en la encrucijada de la historia
- Sentido de la difusión cultural de América Latina
- Latinoamérica, un nuevo humanismo
- La transformación de la filosofía latinoamericana
- Filosofía de lo americano
- América como autodescubrimiento
- El problema cultural de América
- Discurso desde la marginación y la barbarie
Secondary literature
- Mario Saenz: The Identity of Liberation in Latin American Thought: Latin American Historicism and the Phenomenology of Leopoldo Zea, Lanham, Md. ; Oxford : Lexington Books, 1999
- Alejandro Sánchez El Estallido de la Verdad en América Latina - Revista Nómadas- Critical review on Latin American philosophy and Zea's ´modernity´
- Roberto Colonna, Filosofía sin más. Leopoldo Zea e i "Cuadernos Americanos", Firenze: Le Cáriti, 2008.
External links
- Leopoldo Zea in the Centro Virtual Cervantes Biography, chronology, critical studies, interview, anthology, bibliography
- Leopoldo Zea in the Proyecto Ensayo Hispánico Biography, work, bibliography, anthology, critical studies
- The ‘philosophy of liberation’ in Latin America at the end of the 20th century by Hans Schelkshorn
- “History of the Ideas” and Leopoldo Zea by María Ester Chamorro
- About the humanism of Leopoldo Zea by Tzvi Medin
- Leopoldo Zea, A letter to people I shall never meet, UNESCO - Letters to future generations project