The Suspension of Seriousness: On the Phenomenology of Jorge Portilla, with a translation of Fenomenología del relajo

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Matters of Life and Death

Introduction
Jorge Portilla— An Anonymous Life
A Crisis of Relajo
The Context of the Method
On Subjectivity
A Critic of Modernity
Predictions

Chapter 2. Reading Fenomenologá;a del relajo: Part I

Situating Ourselves: El Grupo Hiperiòn
Approaching the Fenomenologá;a del relajo

The Descriptive Project

1.What is Relajo?
2. Four Examples of Relajo
3. Seriousness
4. A Theory of Value
5. Relajo is not mockery [“burla”], sarcasm, or “choteo”
6. Laughter and Relajo

Chapter 3. Reading Fenomenologá;a del relajo: Part II

On Freedom
On Irony
On Humor
On Personality Types
The Fenomenologá;a as a Mirror of Society

Chapter 4. Phenomenology and Fenomenologá;a

Mexican Philosophy in Profile
The Descriptive Method
The Destructive Method
Normative Considerations
Concluding Remarks

Chapter 5. Metaphysics of the Subject

Leopoldo Zea and “lo mexicano”

Portilla’s Confrontation with Oretga y Gasset

1. Oretga’s Views on Subjectivity
2. Portilla’s Ideal of Subjectivity

Beyond Oretga
Relajo and Subjectivity
Subjectivity and Modernity

Chapter 6. The Presuppositions of Modernity

Presupposition (i): Socratic Seriousness
Presupposition (ii): Fecundity and Relajo
Post-Seriousness
A Crisis of Modernity
Concluding Remarks: Portilla and Mexican Philosophy

Notes
Bibliography
Appendix