Rene J. Campis C.

Resumen: Presentamos un recuento del acontecer de la filosofía en el Caribe colombiano durante el siglo XX a través de los casos de Julio E. Blanco, Luis E. Nieto Arteta, Rafael Carrillo, Wilderson Archbold y Gonzalo Munévar, filósofos caribeños que a través del ejercicio de la actividad filosófica llegaron a convertirse en referentes importantes para la tradición regional. A partir de una contextualización sucinta, nos detenemos en el análisis de las contribuciones de cada uno de los autores mencionados. Finalmente, ofrecemos una brevísima descripción de la escena filosófica regional en el presente. Abstract: We present an account of the development of philosophy in the Colombian Caribbean during the 20th century through the cases of Julio E. Blanco, Luis E. Nieto Arteta, Rafael Carrillo, Wilderson Archbold and Gonzalo Munévar, all Colombian Caribbean philosophers who, through their philosophical activity, became important references for the regional tradition. Based on a succinct contextualization, we analyze the contributions of each of the authors mentioned. Finally, we offer a brief description of the regional philosophical scene at present.

El debate que se gestó alrededor del concepto de existencia en manos de Willard Van Orman Quine y Rudolf Carnap, dio al siglo XX un cúmulo de aportes significativos a la ontología. La postura realista, con algunas variantes, de Quine y el criterio anti-realista de Carnap, otorga insumos para pensar de mejor forma cómo se intenta dar descripciones acerca del inmobiliario del mundo. Conocer este debate es importante, ya que, se expone los alcances y limitaciones que implican las explicaciones ontológicas acerca de la realidad que deben ser tenidas en cuenta en la actualidad. Este trabajo cumple esa función, la de explicar sintéticamente uno de los debates más importantes para la ontología.

Julio Enrique Blanco, filósofo colombiano que desarrolló su trabajo en la primera mitad del siglo XX, se ocupa de la fenomenología de Husserl como parte de su propio tratamiento de la historia de la filosofía en su “Curso de historia comparativa de los principales sistemas de la filosofía”. Su crítica a Husserl constituye un caso que permite poner en perspectiva las interpretaciones tradicionales de la historia de la filosofía en Colombia y confrontar con el contexto en Latinoamérica. Este artículo intenta explicar cómo el tratamiento que Blanco da a Husserl y la fenomenología iba en consonancia con sus propios intereses en filosofía, así como también con los desarrollos de otras tradiciones filosóficas en Latinoamérica en su contemporaneidad.

Ernst Mach’s writings remain as thought provoking today as when he first produced them but not so much for his treatment of physics as for the epistemological implications inherent in his vision of how sensations unify the physical with the psychical. For over a hundred years the breach between the objective and subjective or theory and the empirical has been widening due to the increasing abstraction of mathematical frameworks necessary to conceptualize the ever smaller scale of elementary particles contemplated by present day theory.In contrast to that widening gap, neuroscience has simultaneously been creating the basis for a deeper understanding of the physiological basis of sensations that when united with the investigations of cognitive science concur surprisingly well to Mach’s theory of how sensations make possible the discovery of the concepts of science without resorting to metaphysics. This paper attempts to draw together the threads of Mach’s thought that anticipate present day insights such as the functioning of the hippocampus and contingent cortical modules, innate spatial maps and the innate structures of the developing mind that lead to innate proclivities underlying the formation of concepts.

Perhaps the first approach in South America to the work of Mach of which we have knowledge is the study on the Analyse der Empfindungen made by Colombian philosopher Julio Enrique Blanco in Barranquilla, which was derived from his interest in the explanation of living phenomena in general and the psychophysical problem in particular. Despite the difficulty in tracing the path of the work of Mach on South American soil, another point of contact was identified through the influence exerted by Hans A. Lindemann in Buenos Aires, who attended the Schlick Circle on a regular basis. His works, which were reviewed in some journals, offer us the chance to start giving an account of the conceptual lineage of Machian root in South American territories. This work aims to constitute a contribution in that sense. Machian ideas were spread more recently due to the Mach-Einstein connection. Gonzalo Munévar represents a remarkable exception to this pattern due to his account of Machian ideas related to the theory of knowledge and evolution and his relationship with Feyerabend and Hempel.