Mexican Philosophy Final

Positivism

A philosophical doctrine emphasizing science, empirical verification, and progress as the only legitimate sources of knowledge.

In Mexico (late 19th–early 20th century), positivism—via Gabino Barreda and Justo Sierra—shaped education and politics under Porfirio Díaz.

The Ateneo de la Juventud rebelled against it.

Charity (Antonio Caso)

For Caso, caridad (charity/love) is the highest human value.

Contrasts with positivism’s utilitarianism.

Represents altruism, moral freedom, and spiritual elevation.

Philosophical Anthropology

Philosophical study of the human being: its essence, nature, freedom, and destiny.

In Mexico, Caso, Ramos, and others used it to analyze Mexican identity and personality.

Caso:A claim about what is means to be human

Personalidad (Ramos)

“Personality,” for Samuel Ramos, is the product of a historical and cultural struggle to overcome feelings of inferiority.

Mexican personality develops through self-understanding and creative affirmation.

Disinterest (Caso)

Desinterés = acting without self-interest.

For Caso, disinterested acts (art, love, charity) reveal the spiritual dimension of humanity, opposing positivist utilitarianism.

False Europeanism and Mexicanism

Tension identified by early 20th-century Mexican thinkers:

False Europeanism: imitation of European culture, ignoring local reality.

Mexicanism: attempt to assert a genuine Mexican identity.

This duality creates cultural conflict.

Culture

More material and institutional: technology, organization, science.

Often contrasted with “culture” (spiritual, aesthetic) following classic humanist distinctions.

Ateneo de la Juventud (1909–1914)

A group of young intellectuals—Caso, Vasconcelos, Henríquez Ureña—who rejected Mexican positivism.

Promoted:

spiritual values

classical humanism

aesthetic education

national cultural identity

Mestizaje

The cultural and racial mixing foundational to modern Mexican identity.

Part of Vasconcelos’s idea of the raza cósmica (cosmic race).

Inferiority Complex (Ramos)

Ramos adopted Adler’s psychology to explain Mexican behavior.

Mexicans feel inferior → compensate through exaggerated masculinity, bravado, or disdain.

It’s a cultural-psychological interpretation of national character.

Pelado (Ramos)

Urban, marginalized figure symbolizing extreme social deprivation.

Represents the purest expression of the Mexican inferiority complex through aggressive self-affirmation.

Humanism … and its crisis (Ramos)

Ramos analyzed the modern crisis of humanism:

technology dominates

traditional values weaken

the human spirit feels displaced

He proposes a renewal of humanism grounded in authenticity and Mexican identity.

Arielismo

Inspired by José Enrique Rodó’s Ariel (1900).

Values spirituality, beauty, ethics (Ariel) over materialism, utilitarianism (Caliban).

Influential in the Ateneo de la Juventud’s anti-positivist stance.

Machinism

Critique of the dominance of machines and industrial technology.

Symbolizes loss of individuality, mechanization of life, and dehumanization.

Dualism

In Mexican philosophical discourse:

body vs. spirit

practical vs. ideal

civilization vs. culture

Often reflects conflicts between material modernity and spiritual humanism.

Philosophy of History

Study of meaning, direction, and structure of historical processes.

Vasconcelos and Ramos used it to interpret Mexican cultural evolution.

Irrationalism

Philosophical movement valuing intuition, feeling, and will over rationality.

Important as a counter-positivist current (Nietzsche, Bergson).

Influenced the Ateneo’s critique of rigid scientific rationalism.