Historicismo y Personismo

Dilthey and Ortega in José Gaos’s Thought

Abstract

This research presents the philosophical importance of W Dilthey’s Historicism, as well as the “Circumstantial position” of Ortega y Gasset, from the interpretation of the Spanish philosopher exiled in Mexico José Gaos who, through the mentioned philosophical currents, generated new perspectives in the Mexican Philosophy. Before Gaos’s arrival in Mexico, an important and original development had begun in Mexican Philosophy which was manifested in Caso’s, Vasconcelos’s and Ramos’s thought. Although Philosophy existed in Mexico,
there was a general thematic dispersion and academics disorder that required a bigger systematizing. José Gaos was in charge to accomplish such a task. José Gaos had assimilated the European traditions, as well as most of the vanguard Philosophy of the Old Continent, such as the Historicism, the Phenomenology, the Existentialism and the “Circunstancialism”. The central thesis of this article consists of showing that, the Historicism and the “Circumstancialism” were the currents that Gaos developed and applied to the Mexican Culture Problem. Those were the trends that the Mexican philosophers had received. Nevertheless, Mexican Philosophy had been strongly influenced by the Historicism according to Dilthey’s opinion, as well as by the “Circumstancialism”. That is the way that Ortega explained his “Vital position” and the same explanation became a skeptical “Personal position” in Gaos. Finally, the great philosophers and historians, Gaos’s disciples, have explained the cultural problems of Mexico through Gaos’s philosophical filter that has systematized and enlarged the cultural horizon in Mexico...