Philosopher views
Download 5.81 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- IDEALISM (ANTI-POSITIVISM)
LIFE AND TIMESAntonio Caso was born in Mexico City to the liberal, positivist, engineer, Antonio Caso Moreli and to Doña Maria Andrade, who was a Catholic and instilled in Caso an admiration for Christ. In 1897, he entered the Preparatory National School, where he was taught by Ezequiel Chávez and Justo, who influenced him toward positivism (although Caso would fight against it later). He received his bachelor's degree in law from the National School of Jurisprudence, which he attended from 1902-1906. He devoted his life to teaching philosophy, logic, ethics, aesthetics, literature, philosophy of history and sociology in the Preparatory School, the School of Jurisprudence and Superior Studies (now the School of Philosophy and Literature of the UNAM). He was the director of the National Preparatory School in 1909; secretary of the National University in 1910; rector of the National University from 1920-192); and director of the School of Philosophy and Literature from 1930-1932. He taught without imposing a philosophic system. He was the first to teach the philosophic intuitionism of Bergson, the thesis of Spengler, phenomenology of Husserl, neotomism of Maritain, existentialism and historicism of Dilthey. He taught philosophy and sociology as useful tools to learn the truth. Antonio Caso’s philosophical contentions were based in his intellectual rebellion against positivism and the tyrannical rule of President Diaz (from 1876 to 1911, except for one four-year period). The ideals of the Cientificos (the party of the scientists) were political order and economic progress, with positivism as the intellectual tool and President Porfirio Diaz as the political force to operate it. Some historians argue that traditionally, when positivism is applied to politics, an extreme form of democracy arises, proclaiming the absolute rule of the people (Radical Academy). Freedom is understood as the full liberty of the individual, so long as it doesn’t threaten the rights of others. This laissez-faire doctrine in economics leads to Manchesterism, a theory based on a liberal principle of economic freedom, which allows the employer to pay the lowest possible wage without any moral responsibility toward the worker. This was exemplified through the rule of Diaz. During his rule, foreign capital dominated the economic life of Mexico, with foreign ownership of most of the land, industries, and natural resources. Caso founded, together with Alfonso Reyes, Pedro Henriquez Ureña, Jose Vasconcelos and Carlos Gonzalez Peña, the magazine Savia Moderna, under the direction of Alfonso Cravioto and Luis Castillo Ledon. Upon the dissolution of the magazine, the group became the Ateneo de la Juventud (1909-1910), which was propelled against positivism by skepticism of the Don Justo Mountain range. They openly lectured and wrote against positivism and sought to renew the cultural atmosphere in Mexico through freedom of expression, anti-intellectualism, spiritualism, and patriotism. Caso was a member of the first governing body of the UNAM in 1945, a member of the Mexican Academy of Language, and a founding member of El Colegio Nacional in 1943. In 1920, he traveled as plenipotentiary ambassador of Mexico to Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. The universities of Havana, Lima, Guatemala, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro granted him the title of Honorary Doctor. IDEALISM (ANTI-POSITIVISM)The National Preparatory School that Antonio Caso attended was strongly under the positivist influence of Auguste Comte. Positivism is a narrow philosophy of science that denies any validity exists at all to “knowledge” that is not derived through accepted methods of science. So, in opposition to Aristotle, science cannot be the knowledge of things through their ultimate causes, since material and formal causes are unknowable. Theoretical speculation as a means of obtaining knowledge is rejected for verifiable experience in all affairs, including the physical, social, and economic world. Positivism holds three primary contentions: First, that the sciences emerged in strict order, beginning with mathematics and astronomy, followed by physics, chemistry, and biology in that order, and finishing in the newest science of sociology. Second, that all thought follows the “law of the three stages,” passing progressively from superstition to science by first being religious, then abstract or metaphysical, and finally by being positive or scientific. Third, that “sense experience is the only object of human knowledge as well as its sole and supreme criterion. Hence abstract notions or general ideas are nothing more than collective notions; judgments are mere empirical colligations of facts” (Sauvage 1911). Caso went along with positivism in his youth, but changed his thinking after graduating from the School of Jurisprudence. Along with Jose Vasconcelos, Pedro Henriquez Urena, and Alfonso Reyes, he helped form the Ateneo de la Juventud, consisting of about fifty members. They sought the destruction of Porfirism, the removal of foreign economic controls in Mexico, and the lessening of the influences of positivism on the cultural and educational life of Mexico (Flower 1949). Caso critiqued positivism for creating a generation of Mexicans greedy for material wealth and willing to support a dictator for thirty years (Haddox 1971). Caso claimed that the positivists tried to kill the essence of soulful Mexico, but that the Ateneo de la Juventud sought to discover the proper character of Mexico and to develop a Mexican philosophy (Haddox 1971). It was difficult for a philosophical revolution to occur, because of the colonial mentality that resulted in dependency on Spain for its ideas, institutions, customs, and traditions (Haddox 1971). Caso also critiqued positivism for its arbitrary emphasis on specific limited aspects of human experience (Caso, Positivismo, Neopositivism 1941). Caso is labeled an idealist. He argued that rational knowledge must be based in intuition and feeling instead of purely on verifiable experience, like positivism (Caso, Problemas Filosoficos, 1915). The goal of knowledge should be to teach people how to live. Intuition is linked to a concept that leads to action (Haddox 1971). In his later works, he moves beyond his social pragmatism and argues that pure theoretical knowledge can never satisfy human goals, but that the goal of activity becomes a life of love and sacrifice for others (Caso, La Filosofia de la Cultura, 1936). He argued that philosophy should be based on all aspects of human experience, including the poetic, historical, political, scientific, and religious spheres (Caso, La Existencia como Economia, 1916; Caso, Filosofos y Doctrinas Morales, 1915). Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 5.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
|