Philosophy Bites: Carlos Alberto Sánchez on Mexican Philosophy
September 2, 2025
Hosts: David Edmonds & Nigel Warburton
Guest: Carlos Alberto Sánchez

Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton talk to Carlos Alberto Sánchez about what makes Mexican philosophy distinctive. Sánchez delineates the difference between "philosophy in Mexico" and "Mexican philosophy," explores key concepts emerging from Mexican post-colonial experience (such as nepantla and zozobra), explains their cultural relevance, and discusses why Mexican philosophy has been widely neglected in Euro-American circles.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Distinguishes Mexican Philosophy?

• Difference between "philosophy in Mexico" and "Mexican philosophy":
  • Mexican philosophy adapts and responds specifically to the country's post-colonial realities.
  • "Philosophy in Mexico" refers to any philosophical activity taking place in the country, while "Mexican philosophy" focuses on the unique, situated concerns and experiences of its people.
  • "What lends Mexican philosophy its distinctiveness is precisely that, that it is a post-colonial philosophy oriented to the needs of its own people. And these are the needs for identity, purpose and freedom." (Carlos Sánchez, 01:39)
• Rooted in Contextual Reality:
  • Emphasis on concrete, lived experiences rather than abstract theorizing.
  • Philosophy becomes a tool for addressing questions of identity, freedom, and purpose after colonial rule.

2. Freedom and Value in Mexican Philosophy

• Concrete (not abstract) Freedom:

  • Not just an abstract or purely political freedom, but also personal, national, and historical freedom.
  • "Freedom is never considered in the abstract. Freedom is always concrete. It's always the freedom of the Mexican people, or the freedom of the person or the freedom of the culture." (Sánchez, 03:53)

• Critique and Overcoming of Colonial Values:

  • Emphasis on questioning inherited (often colonial) values, seeking those that express local, not imposed, realities.
  • Concepts such as "relaxo" (apathy or detachment from inherited values) are examined as both challenges to and symptoms of liberation.
  • "When you're aching values that have been passed down to you through tradition, when you try to not follow through on those values, that you're actually expressing a certain liberation from them." (Sánchez, 04:40)

• Authenticity vs. Genuineness in Value:

  • Philosophers debate whether "authenticity" is a useful term; instead, values should be "genuine"—emerging directly from the realities of Mexican experience. (06:39)

3. Key Concepts: Nepantla and Zozobra

Nepantla: The State of In-Betweenness

• Definition:

  • Nepantla means "in between" or "in the middle."
  • Originates from indigenous experience as a descriptor for life between two cultures (colonized and colonizer).
  • Later adapted in the 1970s by Latina feminist philosophers to express bicultural identity.
  • "Nepantla just means in between or in the middle... one foot in the past and one foot in the present." (Sánchez, 06:54)

• Personal and Cultural Examples:

  • Sánchez shares his own hesitancy to travel to Mexico despite U.S. citizenship as an example of feeling caught between national identities (07:54).
  • Describes family practices (combination of traditional Mexican and contemporary American medicine) as practical nepantla (09:04).

• Living with Uncertainty:

  • Nepantla is characterized by indeterminacy; it does not offer certainty or relativism, but accepts ambiguity as part of life.
  • "In the state of nepantla, in the state of middlehood or in betweenness, there's really no certainties, right? It's indeterminacy all around. And it's okay." (Sánchez, 10:45)

Zozobra: The Feeling of Ungroundedness

• Definition:

  • Zozobra refers to the emotional "anxiety" or "ungroundedness" inherent in nepantla.
  • Sánchez clarifies it's more than anxiety—it's a sense of ongoing doom and lack of rootedness (11:15).
  • "Sosobra is more encompassing of our lives... a persistent feeling of doom and irreparable calamity." (Sánchez, 12:04)

• Cultural Prevalence:

  • Although found in other cultures, Mexican philosophy has named and deeply analyzed this phenomenon.

• Example:

  • Current fears among Mexican-Americans about government crackdown express zozobra—a sense of looming peril and instability (13:40).

• Response to Zozobra:

  • Emilio Uranga suggests the antidote is community: sharing zozobra brings people together and alleviates isolation (14:04).
  • "If there was a way to connect our Sosobras together, we would realize that we're in this world together..." (Sánchez, 14:04)

4. Mexican Approaches to Death

• Death as Ever-Present, Not Imminent:
  • Unlike in mainstream Western (North American/European) contexts—where death is always in the future—Mexican philosophy treats death as ever-present, woven into daily life and not something to be feared.
  • "For the North American and the Western conception of death, death is something that's always in the future... On the other hand... death has already happened. Death is already here. Death is a presence." (Sánchez, 15:02)
  • Octavio Paz: "Playing with death, making death your best friend."
• Spirits, Ghosts, and Attitudes Toward Danger:
  • Belief in ghosts/spirits is not just superstition but expresses familiarity and courage toward death.
  • "It's the living that are going to do something to me. Right. So if anything, you learn that people are more dangerous than death itself." (Sánchez, 17:07)
• Death in Narco Culture:
  • Many are more afraid of the process of dying than death itself, given circumstances where “life is really worse than anything else that could be offered to them.” (Sánchez, 18:06)

5. Neglect of Mexican Philosophy in Global Academia

• Reasons for Neglect:
  • Implicit bias: an unspoken assumption that colonized peoples can't contribute to philosophy ("What could these people possibly contribute to philosophy?" 19:23).
  • Misperception that Mexican philosophy is merely a derivative of Western philosophy.
• What Mexican Philosophy Offers:
  • Imported philosophies become transformed on Mexican soil, offering new perspectives and philosophical insights.
  • "What happens when an imported philosophy lands in Mexico or Latin America is that it begins to adapt and to change and to absorb the culture in which it is in. And then eventually what comes out is going to be a very interesting conception of the world, of the universe, that's going to teach us things about not only those cultures, but about ourselves..." (Sánchez, 19:47)
  • Mexican philosophy itself is a form of nepantla—not exactly Western, but not something wholly other.

Memorable Quotes

• "Freedom is never considered in the abstract. Freedom is always concrete." — Carlos Sánchez (03:53)
• "Nepantla just means in between or in the middle." — Carlos Sánchez (06:54)
• "Sosobra is more encompassing of our lives... a persistent feeling of doom and irreparable calamity." — Carlos Sánchez (12:04)
• "The solution to feeling that you're about to be squashed by history is to come together in community and share it." — Carlos Sánchez (14:04)
• "Death is already here. Death is a presence." — Carlos Sánchez (15:14)
• "It's the living that are going to do something to me. Right. So if anything, you learn that people are more dangerous than death itself." — Carlos Sánchez (17:07)
• "Mexican philosophy... is its non Europeanness. Yes, it's going to be some sort of branch of the Western philosophy tree, but it's going to also not be that. It's going to be Nepantla, in a sense." — Carlos Sánchez (20:28)

Notable Segments and Timestamps

• [01:00] — Distinguishing "philosophy in Mexico" from "Mexican philosophy"
• [02:54] — Discussion on the many senses of freedom in Mexican philosophy
• [03:53] — Concrete nature of freedom and the concept of "relaxo"
• [06:39] — The debate surrounding authentic vs. genuine values
• [06:54] — Introduction and explanation of nepantla
• [07:54] — Personal example of nepantla in the contemporary U.S. political context
• [09:04] — Nepantla in family medical practices and daily life
• [11:15] — Introduction of zozobra as the emotional state accompanying nepantla
• [14:04] — Community as solution to zozobra
• [15:02] — Distinctive Mexican philosophical attitudes toward death
• [17:07] — Spirits, ghosts, and lessons from attitudes toward death
• [18:06] — Death and narco culture
• [19:23] — Why Mexican philosophy is neglected in the global North
• [20:28] — Mexican philosophy as nepantla within Western philosophy

Episode Takeaways

Carlos Alberto Sánchez’s insights reveal that Mexican philosophy is innovative, contextually grounded, and deeply relevant to questions of identity, freedom, and existence. Its central concepts—nepantla, zozobra, and its unique perspective on death—offer crucial lessons not only about Mexican experience but for philosophy in general. Despite its marginalization in mainstream academia, its "in-betweenness" has the potential to enrich and challenge conventional philosophical paradigms.