Responsabilidad y compromiso en el pensamiento de Leopoldo Zea

Abstract

In several of his works, Leopoldo Zea analyzed the difficult relationship that simultaneously unites and separates Latin America from the West. Zea affirms that Latin American philosophy must be proposed in such a way that it is responsible toward its own past and toward the specificity of its context. Therefore, the acceptance of reality is a commitment that defines individuals’ existence in the world. According to Zea, this commitment is realized mostly through two different angles: the tacit acceptance of this mechanism, and the eventual modification of the terms of this commitment, based on the new demands that time and circumstances impose on individuals. The latter angle implies that the commitment is not rigid and immutable; instead, it is subject to social change and it varies from one society to another.