The importance of tracking Aristotle’s thought in New Spain

Abstract

This text provides external and internal reasons for which it is necessary to coin the term “Aristotelianism of New Spain”. The author explains the need for thinking philosophy from the perspective of one’s vernacular language and for knowing the philosophical tradition that formed Ibero-American thought’s horizon of understanding. In the first part of the text, the author explains the origin of Salamancan Aristotelianism in the 15th century and the academic education of the friars that came to America in the 16th century, and she analyses the specific case of New Spain’s lectures and polemics. The second part of the text provides arguments made by authors of that period.