AUGUSTO SALAZAR BONDY: BIOGRAPHY, THOUGHTS AND WORKS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Augusto Salazar Bondy (1925-1974) was a renowned Peruvian thinker, journalist, and professor, whose philosophical guidelines were aimed at renewing Latin American thought. In his work Is there a philosophy in our America ?, he argued that the continent's philosophy lacked originality due to its strong Western influence.

In turn, he is considered one of the most notable thinkers of contemporary Peru, due to the fact that he devoted himself to the analysis and discussion of the Peruvian reality. Similarly, he was one of the most prominent writers of his time along with his brother Sebastián Bondy.

In order to carry out the renovation of Latin American thought, Augusto Bondy started by establishing more rigorous guidelines, taking into account the knowledge acquired through his solid scientific and philosophical training.

Biography

Augusto César Salazar Bondy was born on December 8, 1925 in the capital of Lima, and died on February 6, 1974 in the same place. His parents were María Bondy, born in Chimbote -region located on the shores of the Pacific Ocean-; and Augusto Salazar, who came from Ferreñafe, a region located northwest of the coast.

His older brother, Sebastián Salazar Bondy, was born a year earlier and was also a notable Peruvian writer. He excelled in the areas of theater and poetry, and was also a recognized member of the Generation of 50.

First studies

Bondy obtained his first training at the German School in 1930. However, he only stayed two years in this institution, since in 1932 he entered the San Agustín School and there he completed both his primary and secondary studies.

Later he entered the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in 1945, where he studied Letters. Later, he also enriched his knowledge thanks to the careers of Education and Philosophy while he taught at the San Andrés School.

During this period Bondy had the influence of renowned educators, such as Francisco Miró Quesada Cantuarias, philosopher and journalist; Mariano Ibérico, outstanding in the world of jurisdiction; and Walter Peñaloza, who made a notable contribution to improving the training of Peruvian teachers.

College career and travel

In 1948, Salazar Bondy made a trip to Mexico in order to expand his knowledge.

He first took part in a seminar on Latin American thought given at the Colegio de México, which was led by José Gaos, a Spanish philosopher exiled in Latin America. Later, he did other studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Two years later he undertook a trip to France to learn other philosophical perspectives at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. During this period he became interested in the ideas of great European philosophers such as Camus, Heidegger and Sartre. Later he toured other countries on the continent such as Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Norway.

In 1953, he acquired a Ph.D. in Philosophy, which began his work as an educator. Bondy taught Ethics classes at the School of Letters, as well as Pedagogy in the Education career.

Teaching work

The philosopher founded the Alejandro Deustua Cooperative College, located in the capital. In addition, in 1960 he gave Philosophy classes at the Guadalupe School.

At the same time he was selected to organize the Department of Methodology belonging to the School of Education, and in 1964 he was chosen as president of the organization of the Faculty of General Studies.

Later, together with his brother, he formed part of the IEP (Institute of Peruvian Studies), a research center dedicated to the study of social sciences from a more independent and plural perspective. This institute has been in operation for 54 years.

Political participation

Like his brother Sebastián, in 1956 he was a participant in the creation of the Progressive Social Movement, whose members were the constitutional lawyer Alberto Ruiz Eldredge, the journalist Francisco Moncloa, the literary critic Abelardo Oquendo, the economist Bravo Bresani and the renowned poet Nicomedes. Santa Cruz.

However, the movement did not last long due to its electoral defeat in 1962, at which time they decided to dissolve the group.

Despite this, Bondy remained active in the world of politics, since in the 70s he was chosen by the government of Juan Velasco Alvarado as vice president of the Commission for the Reform of Education, as well as was selected as president of the Higher Council of Education.

Thought

According to connoisseurs, the author's philosophical production can be divided into three stages: the initial one, which lasts until 1961; that of maturity, which runs until 1969; and a third stage, which was left unfinished due to Bondy's death in 1974.

In the initial period, Bondy was very influenced by his professors at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, especially by José Francisco Miró Quesada Cantuarias. This can be seen in one of his early articles, entitled Contemporary Trends in British Moral Philosophy.

During his period of literary maturity, the author set out to carry out a project in which he sought to link and overcome the great philosophical ideologies of the moment, from which he had been influenced in his initial stage; these were Marxism, analytical philosophy, and the phenomenological movement.

In the final stage of Bondy's philosophical thought, the author dedicated himself to making works that encompassed possible alternatives or solutions in terms of education and philosophy as branches of human knowledge.

For example, he was going to carry out his text Anthropology of domination; however, this was left unfinished due to the author's premature death.

Another text that Bondy could not complete, and in which he also emphasized the issue of education, was his work entitled The Education of the New Man, in which he established the necessary parameters to carry out an educational reform inspired by humanism, whose purpose was the transformation of Latin American societies.

Concern for Latin American philosophy

During his stage of maturity between 1961 and 1968, Bondy realized that his philosophical proposal had to be very different from the conventional philosophy of Latin America since, according to the author, from a new vision of thought it would be possible to access the answers to the problems not only of Peru, but also of the entire continent.

In other words, in this decade the author's concern arose to reflect on the dependence of Latin American philosophy on that of Europe.

In fact, in 1968 he traveled to the University of Kansas, where he read a farewell speech that is a first sketch of what later became his greatest work: Is there a philosophy of our America?

Plays

Some of the most remarkable works of Augusto Salazar Bondy are: Philosophy in Peru. Historical panorama, written in 1954; The philosophical tendencies in Peru, published in the year 1962; What is philosophy ?, 1967; The culture of domination in Peru, 1968; and Between Scylla and Charybdis. Reflections on Peruvian Life, 1969.

Is there a philosophy of our America?

This was arguably his most notable work. The central thesis of this recognized and controversial work resides in the idea that the culture of a people that has been dominated ends up being a culture of domination and, therefore, is inauthentic.

This means that societies such as Latin America absorb the cultural precepts of that country that dominated their lands, thus separating themselves from their authentic cultural heritage.

The author indicated that, due to colonization, the culture of Peru is not homogeneous or organic, but is hybrid and plural. As a consequence of this lack of integration, this culture lacks authenticity.

Another aspect that Bondy addressed in this work is that, thanks to European domination, Latin American culture is imitative and not creative. Consequently, the community becomes an alienated society.

The Peruvian how to be alienated

According to Salazar Bondy, the Peruvian citizen can be considered as an alienated being, since he obeys patterns and norms that do not belong to him; that is to say, they are completely alien to him.

This occurs because these patterns lack a historical substance that represents them, which has been fully constructed and not through foreign domination.

As a consequence, Augusto Salazar established that the situation in underdeveloped countries cannot improve, since it continues to obey a pattern of domination. For the author, Latin America will only be able to prosper to the extent that it manages to unleash the ties of dependency it maintains with foreign powers.

This thesis was transferred by Bondy to the figure of the Latin American philosopher since, according to him, he lacks authenticity and is built from Western imitation. The author indicated that to be able to break with this falsification it is necessary to renew all the Latin American precepts, in order to acquire a genuine thought.

References

1. Quiroz, R. (2014) Proceedings of the congress on Augusto Salazar Bondy. Retrieved on October 3, 2018 from Amazon Academia: s3.amazonaws.com
2. Bondy, S. (2004) Is there a philosophy of our America? Retrieved on October 3, 2018 from Google Books: books.google.es
3. Bondy, S. (1995) Domination and Liberation. Retrieved on October 3, 2018 from Introfilosofía: introfilosofia.wordpress.com
4. Bondy, S. (1965) History of Ideas in Contemporary Peru. Retrieved on October 3, 2018 from PhilPapers: philpapers.org
5. Scannone, J. (2009) The philosophy of liberation: history, characteristics, current validity. Retrieved on October 3, 2018 from Scielo: scielo.conicyt.cl