Philosophical criticism of Abelardo Villegas to the work of Leopoldo Zea

Abstract

The pillars of Latin American philosophy in Mexico during the 20th century were Leopoldo Zea and Abelardo Villegas. The former as the founder of that philosophical trend and teacher of Abelardo Villegas. The latter as the greatest intellectual pupil and an outstanding scholar of the Latin American thought. The intellectual contributions of both thinkers transcended the traditional approaches and topics related to the philosophical questions of being, knowing, and acting since they developed novel and original interpretations. For example, Abelardo Villegas exercised criticism to the work of Leopoldo Zea. This task of self-knowledge of the Latin American philosophical work carried out by Abelardo Villegas through the revision of some of the approaches of Leopoldo Zea is the main topic of this article, where the intellectual assessment of his teacher is discussed and issues related to the philosophy of Mexican topics are analysed, as well as the conception of philosophy as commitment, the foundations of the normalisation of Latin American philosophy, the logical contradictions detected in the universalism-circumstantialism dichotomy, the absence of axiological gradations, and the conception of the Mexican Revolution. Finally, as an epilogue, the position taken by Leopoldo Zea regarding the cluster of criticisms of his philosophical work is explained.