This course is an introduction to Latin American philosophy. As such its aims are to give a firm ground in the history of Latin American philosophy; to introduce some of the crucial ideas, issues, problems and forms of thinking that occur in some of the most important periods, movements and figures in Latin American thought; to cultivate the ability to read this tradition in its own right, and to recognize its distinct and meaningful contributions to world philosophies. The course will involve close reading and analysis of texts, background lectures and class discussions. Some of the central issues broached in this class will be ethnic identity, border culture, race, exile, social justice, history, time, writing, memory, the relationship between poetry and philosophy, the configuration of Latin American Hispano American, and Afro-Hispanic-American identities, alternative temporalities, and the role diverse manners of discourse and experience may play in the configuration of philosophical ideas. The course will draw its material from the writings of philosophers, literary figures, essayists, political figures and indigenous chronicles.
The history of Latin American philosophy is marked by the invasion of the continents we know today as the Americas. Thus, Latin American philosophy has as its pivotal mark the events that begin with the arrival of the conquistadors in 1492, and it concerns the ways of thinking that preceded as well as those that have followed the colonization of the Americas. Latin American philosophy is therefore marked by a struggle for decolonization, for the possibility of given articulation to lives and ways of thinking that were erased, suppressed, or silenced. At the same time, it also concerns ways of thinking that arise in distinct separation or exteriority from the Western North American and European traditions. Therefore, to speak of Latin American philosophy is to engage a vast struggle for the articulation of identities in their distinct differences beyond their subjugation and exclusion. This course is an introduction to these struggles in some of their principal and crucial forms. Some of the central issues broached in this class will be: ethnic identity, border culture, race, gender, class, exile, social justice, history, time, writing, and memory. Beginning from the challenges opened to Latin American thought by Gabriel García-Márquez in his Nobel acceptance speech in 1982, we will look back to crucial moments in the history of Latin American thought and discuss philosophical writings, essays, journals, and literary works of such figures as Felípe Guaman Poma de Ayala, Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolivar, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, José Martí, Carlos Mariátegui, Leopoldo Zea, Augusto Salazar Bondy, Enrique Dussel, Aníbal Quijano, Maria Lugones, Linda Alcoff, Gloria Anzaldúa, Decolonial Feminism, Silvia Rivera Cusicánqui, and Sub-Comandante Marcos. Also central to the course are indigenous and popular thought in Latin America.
PHIL 342 satisfies the criteria for Arts & Letters under Core Education. The study of Latin American philosophy by the very nature of its subject, concepts, issues and manner of inquiry promotes open inquiry from a variety of perspectives. Latin American philosophy concerns a history of diversity in the formation of its identities from its Indigenous-Afro-European beginnings. Moreover, the inquiry into the various modes of thought developed through this rich cross-pollination occurs as students do not only learn fundamental methods and concepts in philosophy, but specifically as they apply them through engaging in the analysis and interpretation of philosophical concepts in their distinct forms in Latin America.
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