Career
The Athenian generation opposed Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer’s philosophical views, giving credence to and expanding on the ideas of Henri Bergson, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and José Enrique Rodó. His group the ateneistas believed in a moral, willing, and spiritual individual being. He was inspired by the Christian philosophical tradition, in particular by Blaise Pascal and Tolstoy.
Caso distinguishes three aspects of human existence: economic, aesthetic, and moral.
Caso refuted Gabino Barreda’s thesis and the first Justo Sierra that the future of Mexico was built primarily on basis of a scientific doctrine. The supporters of the first accuse them of ignoring reality, while those in the second get the blame for the alleged inevitability of reality.
Antonio Caso is a pioneer in the Mexican philosophy that was developed later by Samuel Ramos, Leopoldo Zea Aguilar, and Octavio Paz among others In his book El problema de México y la ideología nacional, (The problem of Mexico and the nation ideology) published in 1924, Caso argues Mexico’s biggest problem is the lack of unity (racial, cultural and social).
Towards the end of his life, Caso was influenced by the philosophies of Husserl, Scheler, and Heidegger, especially Husserl, whose ideas were reflected in the book Louisiana filosofía de Husserl, El acto ideatorio, Louisiana persona humana y el estado totalitario y El peligro del hombre.
(Husserl"s philosophy, ideatory The act, The human person and the totalitarian state, and the danger of man).