Appendix 2. Hegel and Latin America

Chapter Summary

For Gerbi, the haughty judgementalism of Hegel's pronouncements regarding the American continent was the inevitable result of his theoretical system. Even Gerbi himself, however, includes in a footnote some of the reflections of Ortega y Gasset, which adhere more closely to Hegel's framework and its real intention than does his own sour and superficial critique, too narrowly abiding by the dubious logical approach of presenting debatable facts and then rationalising them. It is interesting to note that in Hegel there co-existed two radically different perspectives on population-growth, a positive thing in the New World since it provided the conditions for the organised state, whereas in the Old World it was a negative factor, not simply the result of its natural growth but rather a negative effect of the dialectics of civil society.

Keywords: Gerbi; Hegel; Latin America; Ortega y Gasset