Alex Guerrero - NEWLAMP 2023

Most undergraduate students in North America only read and discuss “Western,” Anglo-European philosophy in their philosophy courses. The problem is not that philosophy professors are generally unwilling to teach traditionally underrepresented areas such as African, Latin American, Indigenous, East Asian, South Asian, and Islamic philosophy. Rather, the problem is that most lack the familiarity needed to competently teach work in these areas. The Northeast Workshop to Learn About Multicultural Philosophy (NEWLAMP) project is a yearly week-long summer workshop aimed towards remedying this problem, by teaching philosophy teachers about a given underrepresented area, so that they can then teach it in their general undergraduate courses. Each year, NEWLAMP will focus on a different area.

NEWLAMP 2023 will focus on Mesoamerican, Latin American, and Latinx moral, social, and political philosophy.

The NEWLAMP 2023 website is here.

Three experts will lead the workshop:

Carlos Alberto Sanchez

San Jose State University

James Maffie

University of Maryland (Emeritus)

Stephanie Rivera Berruz

Marquette University

Plan for Workshop

1 Monday Morning Session

Introductions and Overview

Experts: Jim Maffie, Stephanie Rivera Berruz, and Carlos Sanchez

Required Reading:

Latin American Feminism, Stephanie Rivera Berruz, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Nahuatl borrow words in Mexican Spanish

2 Monday Afternoon Session

Introduction to Aztec/Nahua/Mexica Philosophy

Expert: Jim Maffie

Overview of Key Concepts of Nahua Metaphysics, prepared by James Maffie

(1) Sources and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion

Required reading:

Davíd Carrasco, Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire (2002) pp. 11-49.

Victoria Ríos Castaño, “Translating the Nahuas: Fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s Parallel Texts in the Construction of Universal History of the things of New Spain,” in Negotiating Difference in the Hispanic World: from Conquest to Globalization 2011, Eleni Kefala (ed) vol. 30 pp. 28-37.

Gertrudis Payàs, “Translation in Historiography: The Garibay/León-Portilla Complex and the Making of a Pre-Hispanic Past.” Meta: Journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators' Journal, vol. 49, n° 3, 2004, p. 544-561.

(2a) Metaphysics

Required readings:

“Legend of the Suns” (“Leyenda de los soles”), in History and Mythology of the Aztecs: The Codex Chimalpopoca, translated by John Bierhorst. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1992. pp. 139-162

Annals of Cuauhtitlan (Anales de cuauhtitlan), in History and Mythology of the Aztecs: The Codex Chimalpopoca. translated by John Bierhorst. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, pp. 24-26.

Sahagún, Bernardino de (1953-82). Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. Arthur J.O. Anderson & Charles Dibble, eds. and trans. 12 vols. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research and University of Utah. VII, ch.2. pp. 1-9. “Creation stories.”

“The Five Suns” (many of the key defining themes of Mexica cosmogony, metaphysics and ethics are expressed in the film)

(2b) Metaphysics

Required reading:

Fray Diego Durán, “The Sixth Month of the Year: Etzalhualiztli, in Fray Diego Durán, Book of the Gods and Rites and The Ancient Calendar, Fernando Horcasitas and Doris Heyden, trans. and eds., with foreword by Miguel León-Portilla. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971, pp. 430-433.

Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, Etzalhualiztli.

Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions … Appendix F. “Paraphrases of the Incantation in the Treatise” J. Richard Andrews & Ross Hassig (trans and eds). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984, pp. 259-302.

James Maffie, Aztec Philosophy (book), chs. 1-3, 6, pp. 512-513

3 Tuesday Morning Session

Aztec/Nahua/Mexica Ethics

Expert: Jim Maffie

Overview of Key Claims of Nahua Ethics, prepared by James Maffie

(1) Ethics (narrower focus)

Required reading:

Sahagún, Bernardino de (1953-82). (FC) Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. Arthur J.O. Anderson & Charles Dibble, eds. and trans. 12 vols. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research and University of Utah.

Sahagun FC BK VI, Chs. 17-19: How fathers and mothers exhorted their children

… FC BK VI: Figures of Speech

… FC BK VI: Adages

… FC BK VI, Ch.21: How fathers exhorted their sons

… FC BK X: Characterizations of good and bad people

The Art of Nahuatl Speech: Bancroft Dialogues, Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart (eds), UCLA Latin American Center Publications, University of California, Los Angeles, 1987. Pp. 108-113, 148-152, 194-197..

Andrés de Olmos, Of the Manners of Speaking that the Old Ones Had: The Metaphors of Andrés de Olmos in the TULAL Manuscript Arte para Aprender la Lengua Mexicana 1547, Judith M. Maxwell and Craig A. Hanson. Salt Lake City: Univ of Utah Press, 1992, selections (pp. 169-187).

(2) Ethics (broader focus)

Required reading:

James Maffie, Aztec Philosophy (book), Conclusion

James Maffie, “The Nature of Mexica Ethics,” in Colin Marshall (ed), Comparative Metaethics: Neglected Perspectives on the Foundations of Morality. London: Routledge 2020, pp. 60-80.

James Maffie, “The Role of Hardship in Mexica Ethics: Or, Why Being Good Has to Hurt,” American Philosophical Association Newsletter for Indigenous Philosophy vol. 18 no.2 (2019): 8-17.

James Maffie, “Weaving the Good Life in a Living World: Reciprocity, Balance and Nepantla in Aztec Ethics,” Science, Religion and Culture, 6 Special Issue 1, Owen Flanagan (ed) 2019, pp. 15-25.

(3) Social-political Philosophy

Required reading:

James Maffie, “Nemiliztli and Tlamanitiliztli”

(4) Human~”divine” reciprocity: Human life-energy gifting and debt-payment

Required reading:

Sahagún FC: II: New Fire Ceremony

Sahagún FC: II: Toxcatl

4 Tuesday Afternoon Session

Mexican philosophy in the 20th Century

Expert: Carlos Sanchez

Required Reading:

Leopoldo Zea, “Philosophy as Commitment” in Sanchez and Sanchez (2017), Mexican Philosophy in the 20th Century: Required Readings, Oxford: 125-140 (book)

Carlos Sanchez, "Introduction" to Mexican Philosophy for the 21st Century: Relajo, Zozobra, and Other Frameworks for Understanding Our World (2023)

Guillermo Hurtado, “Mexican Philosophy,” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-mexico/

Leopoldo Zea, “Philosophy and Thought in Latin America,” Latin American Research Review 3:2 (1968): 3-16. (included)

Carlos Pereda, “Latin American Philosophy: Some vices,” Journal of Speculative Philosophy,” 20:3 (2006): 192-203.

Patrick Romanell, “The Background of Contemporary Mexican Thought,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 8:2 (1947): 256-265.

5 Wednesday Morning Session

Mexican philosophy as Critical Philosophy

Expert: Carlos Sanchez

Required Reading:

Jorge Portilla, "Phenomenology of Relajo," pp. 124-200 of The Suspension of Seriousness.

Suggested Reading: pp. 1-123 of The Suspension of Seriousness

Francisco Gallegos, "Seriousness, Irony, and Cultural Politics: In Defence of Jorge Portilla," (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://philpapers.org/archive/FRASIA-7.pdf);

Jasmine Rault, “Ridiculizing” Power: Relajo and the Affects of Queer Activism in Mexico," https://sfonline.barnard.edu/ridiculizing-power-relajo-and-the-affects-of-queer-activism-in-mexico/; Chapter "Relajo" from Sanchez forthcoming Mexican Philosophy in the 21st Century.