• Iberoamérica
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.115-143
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• 2019

This article analyzes the relationship between Mexican writer Alfonso Reyes and the group of thinkers, writers, and critics that conformed the Ateneo de la Juventud, in order to show the reciprocal influence that existed between them. The article also considers the Ateneo's role in breaking from the old Positivist model and the acceptance of new ideas around spiritualism, youthfulness, the creation of a thinking and critical sphere, and intellectual aristocracy, among others. The relationship between the ideas of the Ateneo de la Juventud and the Mexican Revolution are discussed, as well as the social and cultural practices of dialogue and friendship, which are considered to be key to understanding the manifestations of intellectual sociability that took place at the turn of the century in Mexico and Latin America. The article also presents an overview of the role that the reading of classical texts and modern thinkers (Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Bergson, Boutroux among others) had for ateneístas, as well as the way in which they preserved an arielista sense of a relationship between knowledge, ethics, and aesthetics as formative keys for the ideas men of their time.