The Turn of the Screw: Analytic Philosophy in Ibero-America

Abstract

This is a commentary on a debate originated by Guillermo Hurtado and followed up by Manuel García-Carpintero and Horacio Luján Martínez, in regards to the meaning and objectives of analytic philosophy, especially in Latin America. This paper holds that Hurtado’s theses are also true about non analytic philosophy, since they are about professional philosophy, as practiced both inside and outside Latin America. Professionalization and popularization of philosophy, while positive phenomena in themselves, have negative collateral consequences on the quality of philosophy produced in the present moment. It is also held that the fact that a given philosophical proposal has no immediate existential or political relevance doesn’t make it less important, as long as in some sense it widens the frontiers of knowledge.