Samuel Ramos and the new humanism

Abstract

Samuel Ramos’ concerns regarding culture and education are intimately related to his broader philosophy. In this philosophy Ramos contemplates the need to develop a philosophical anthropology that can guide us in our observations and reflections about the contemporary man and specifically about the Mexican. What is the idea of man that establishes and sustains the actions of the Mexican? The answer lies in the consideration that the soul of the Mexican people is characterized primarily by suffering and humiliation, which generate a feeling of inferiority strengthened by the long series of painful and traumatic processes that make up Mexican history. This interpretation of the Mexican as paralyzed and powerless allows Ramos to form a philosophical anthropology that responds to the question posed by Max Scheler’s philosophy: What is man’s place in the universe? Or, in this case, what is the Mexican’s place as a citizen in a modern society? Ramos’ answer implies the need to create a meaning, a direction, and a purpose that come together to form what he calls New Humanism. This is his main focus: to identify a structure that will sustain a new man who is conscious of the contemporary world while at the same time lost in it.