Self-understanding and recognition

A Hegelian approach to the philosophy of Mexican culture: Vasconcelos, Ramos and Uranga

Abstract

The present work is a Hegelian interpretation of the meaning of the philosophy of culture in Mexico. Through a confrontation of the philosophical thought of the Mexican Emilio Uranga (first half of the 20th century) with the thought of Hegel, we try to show that there is a common meaning between the process of self-understanding that shapes Philosophy and the Hegelian concept of self-understanding. But such an affinity cannot be grasped as long as the ethnocentric feature of interpretation that defines the first as "particularist" and treats the latter as one of the greatest "universalists". Uranga dialogues with the European philosophy, and develops a possibility of authentic and universal affirmation of the Mexican culture, of which the affirmation fully universal of philosophy. Mexican philosophy is shown to be one of the expressions of thought better suited to understanding the processes of identity, differentiation and cultural exchange at the level of ideas, without denying the value of European philosophies.