The “fundamental intuition” in the attribution of meaning to the consciousness of American civilization within the thought of Antenor Orrego

Abstract

The present article aims to analyze the role of the "fundamental intuition" in attributing meaning to the consciousness of American civilization within the thought of Antenor Orrego in the first half of the 20th century. We identify Antenor Orrego as a philosopher who exemplified an aesthetic philosophy of spiritualist character, while embracing a materialist political realization. To this end, the article examines the early 20th century Peruvian intellectual context from which Orrego develops a philosophical framework centered on the cultural and political identity of Latin America, and through which he proposes an ontology that articulates social emancipation with a profound spiritual dimension. Although some specialized literature portrays Orrego's philosophy as irrationalist, anti-scientific, identitarian, and mystical, this article seeks to offer a more nuanced understanding of his work by exploring two key concepts that challenge this depiction: depth and expression. It is argued that Orrego's fundamental intuition transcends irrationalist identitarianism, proposing instead a logic of multiple meanings, where the spiritual and the material are integrated into a political praxis that connects the aesthetic with the socio-historical. The article advocates for a re reading of Orrego as a philosopher of expression and Latin American becoming.