O legado do pensamento filosófico de Leopoldo Zea para a América Latina: o latino-americanismo universal1

Abstract

This article examines the connection between Leopoldo Zea’s philosophy and the historical circumstances in which he lived. The parallel between his production and determining facts of Latin American history, including the influences he received from them, is made according to three fundamental stages: the History of Ideas in Latin America; the Philosophy of the History of Latin America and Latin American Philosophy of Liberation. It concludes that the path of his intellectual production reaches the apex with a discourse that seeks universal communication – and mutual recognition – based on solidarity and equality between the different cultural identities. Thus, as the observation of peculiarities of our history points to cultural plurality, as an expression of the plurality of history, one may conclude that there is an equalitarian insertion of the American man/woman in the universal destiny. Consequently, liberation doesn’t come before any will or vocation to the establishment of a new domination, but the equalitarian insertion of the American culture – of all cultures, in essence – in the universal destiny.

Key-words: Leopoldo Zea, Philosophy of history, Latin American philosophy, History of Latin America, Universal Latin Americanism.