C. Alberto Sánchez, Contingency and commitment

Andrea Pitts

pp. 645-652

in: Human Studies 39 (4), 2016.

Abstract

At the most general level, Contingency and Commitment: Mexican Existentialism and the Place of Philosophy by Carlos Alberto Sánchez is an analysis of El Grupo Hiperión [the Hyperion Group], a collective of Mexican intellectuals that developed a distinctive trajectory of existential thought between 1948 and 1952. Through extensive examinations of the writings of los hiperiones [the hyperions] such as Ricardo Guerra, Joaquín Sánchez MacGrégor, Jorge Portilla, Emilio Uranga, Luis Villoro, and Leopoldo Zea, Sánchez offers a series of rich philosophical discussions that delve into the meaning and significance of existentialism in mid-twentieth century Mexico. Such a book-length treatment of El Grupo Hiperiónis certainly a welcomed addition to the growing body of Anglophone literature within Latin American Philosophy, specifically due to the contentful questions of human finitude, universality and particularity, the self-other relationship, and the range of other compelling questions...