 The fourth philosophical current in the Latin American contemporary scene worth noting is not properly an orientation but a field of study: the history of philosophy. Philosophical productivity in this area is worthy of note because its impact has been considerably among philosophers of diverse persuasions. Before 1960, both the quantity and the quality of studies on the history of philosophy published in Latin America were often deplorable. Most works amounted to panegyrics, or mere paraphrases of texts not available in Spanish translation. Moreover, complete periods of the history of philosophy remained outside the scope of those studies. Since 1960, the situation has changed substantially. There are now works that deal with practically every period of the history of Western philosophy, and even Eastern philosophy. Moreover, a good proportion of those studies are serious, revealing knowledge of the pertinent languages and primary sources and adding a critical element without which the history of philosophy becomes merely a gloss.