PHIL 401: Latin American Philosophy
Instructor: José J. Mendoza
Email: josejm@uw.edu
Office: Savery Hall 385
Office Hour: Monday 12:30-1:30 and Wednesday 3:30-4:30
Course Description
This course is designed to provide students with a general survey of Latin American philosophy, including some of its key texts and authors. This survey will range from Mesoamerican philosophy to the present. It will cover debates about whether there was an “indigenous” philosophy in Latin America prior to the European conquest. From there we will look at the debates over whether there is now an “authentic” Latin American philosophy and the course will conclude with debates over the nature (or existence) of a Latinx identity and the original contributions of Latinx feminism.
Required Texts
All texts will be available on Canvas.
Course Grading Scale
(roughly each 1% increment between grades is equivalent to 0.1)
A 95% = 4.0
B 85% = 3.0
C 75% = 2.0
D 65% = 1.0
At the end of the quarter we will convert your course grade from a percentage to the UW 4-point scale using this metric: 95% and up is 4.0; 94% is 3.9; 93% is 3.8; etc. Each 1% step is a 0.1 step on the UW 4-point scale. So an 86.1%, e.g., would give you a 3.1 on the UW scale. 85.5% rounds up to 86% (and thus 3.1), but 85.49% does not. At the bottom of the scale, however, 60% also rounds up to 0.7. See image below.
Assignment Guidelines for Undergraduates
1. Reading Quizzes (25% of course grade or 1.0 of the 4.0 total)
Each quiz will consist of about 5-20, mostly multiple-choice, questions. There is no time limit and the questions chronologically follow the reading. You are therefore strongly encouraged to take the quiz as you complete the readings. Quizzes will be available for only 14 days. So, do not fall too far behind and keep in mind there is no way to make up the quizzes once the quizzes are closed.
2. Short Writing assignments (30% of course grade or 1.2 of the 4.0 total)
There will be two short writing assignments (about 2,000 words in length) throughout the term.
3. Class Presentations and Participation (20% of course grade or 0.8 of the 4.0 total)
TBA.
4. Final Paper (25% of course grade or 1.0 of the 4.0 total)
This assignment should take no less than 6 pages to complete, but it should also be no longer than 12 pages. The format for this paper is as follows: double-spaced, 12-point font, in Times New Roman or something similar, and margins should be at least one inch wide but no more than 1.25 inches wide. Citations should follow either APA, MLA, or Chicago style. Papers should be turned in through Canvas and NOT by email.
Reading Schedule
Unit One (Weeks 1-3): Was There “Indigenous” Philosophy in Latin America?
Week One (Jan 5 & 7)
Required Readings:
Miguel León-Portilla: Aztec Thought and Culture:
Jan 5th (Wednesday)
Prefaces (both)
Introduction: Philosophy and Culture in Ancient Mexico
Chapter 1: The Birth of Philosophy Among the Nahuas
Chapter 2: The Pre-Columbian Concept of the Universe
Jan 7th (Friday)
Chapter 3: Metaphysical and Theological Ideas of the Nahuas
Week Two (Jan 12 & 14)
Required Readings:
Miguel León-Portilla: Aztec Thought and Culture
Jan 12 (Wednesday)
Chapter 4: The Approach to Man in Nahuatl Thought
Chapter 5: Nauatl Man: Creator of a Way of Life
Jan 14 (Friday)
Conclusion
Week Three (Jan 19 and 21)
Required Readings:
Jan 19th (Wednesday): James Maffe: Pre-Columbian Philosophies
Jan 21st (Friday): Alejandro Santana: “Did the Aztecs Do Philosophy?”
Unit Two (weeks 4-5): Is There an “Authentic” Latin American Philosophy?
Week Four (Jan 26 & 28)
Required Readings:
Jan 26th (Wednesday): Risieri Frondizi: “Is There an Ibero-American Philosophy?”
Jan 26th (Wednesday): José Carlos Mariátegui: “Is There Such a Thing as Hispanic-American Thought?”
.Jan 26th (Friday): Leopoldo Zea: “The Actual Function of Philosophy in Latin America”
Jan 28th (Friday): Leopoldo Zea: “Identity: A Latin American Philosophical Problem”
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Week Five (Feb 2 & 4)
Required Readings:
Feb 2nd (Friday): Jorge J. E. Gracia: "Identity and Latin American Philosophy"
Feb 4th (Friday): Susana Nuccetelli: “Latin American Philosophy”
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Unit Three (week 6): Is There a “Unique” Latinx Identity?
Week Six (Feb 9 & 11)
Required Readings:
Feb 9th (Wednesday): Linda Alcoff: “Latino vs. Hispanic: The Politics of Ethnic Names”
Unit Four (weeks 7-10): Latinx Feminism
Week Seven (Feb 16 & 18)
Required Reading:
Gloria Anzaldúa: Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza
Feb 16 (Wednesday)
Chapter 1: The Homeland, Aztlán/El Otro México
Chapter 2: Movimientos de Rebeldia y Las Culturas que Traicionan
Chapter 3: Entering Into the Serpent
Chapter 4: La Herencia de Coatlicue/The Coatlicue State
Chapter 5: How to Tame a Wild Tongue
Feb 18 (Friday)
Chapter 6: Tlilli, Tlapalli: the Path of the Red and Black Ink
Chapter 7: La Conciencia de Ia Mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness
Week Eight (Feb 23 & 25)
Required Reading:
Feb 23rd (Wednesday): María Lugones:Playfulness, “World”-Traveling, and Loving Perception
Feb 23rd (Wednesday): María Lugones: Purity, Impurity, and Separation
Feb 25th (Friday): Mariana Ortega: In-Between : Latina Feminist Phenomenology, Multiplicity, and the Self
Introduction
Chapter 1 The New Mestiza and La Nepantlera
Week Nine (March 2 & 4)
Required Readings:
Mariana Ortega: In-Between : Latina Feminist Phenomenology, Multiplicity, and the Self
March 2 (Wednesday)
Chapter 2 Being-between-Worlds, Being-in-Worlds
Chapter 3 The Phenomenology of World-Traveling
March 4 (Friday)
Chapter 4 World-Traveling, Double Consciousness, and Resistance
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Week Ten (March 9 & 11)
Required Readings:
Mariana Ortega: In-Between : Latina Feminist Phenomenology, Multiplicity, and the Self
March 9 (Wednesday)
Chapter 5 Multiplicitous Becomings: On Identity, Horizons, and Coalitions
Chapter 6 Social Location, Knowledge, and Multiplicity
March 11 (Friday)
Chapter 7 Hometactics
Afterword
March 18: Final Paper Due (5pm PST)
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