Romero developed a systematic hierarchical ontology centered on the concept of "transcendence" (trascendencia) - the passage of being from mere physical existence, through psychic life, to spirit, which he defined by its intentional capacity to reach beyond itself toward values and other persons. His "Theory of Man" (1952) argued that human beings are distinguished by this transcending intentionality, against both materialist reduction and abstract idealism.
Intellectual setting
Romero wrote as part of the generation that reacted against nineteenth-century positivism in Latin America, drawing on the German philosophy of Dilthey, Husserl, Scheler, and Hartmann then reaching Argentina, and he resigned his university posts in 1946 in opposition to the Perónist government before returning in 1955.
Key ideas
The hierarchy of transcendence
Romero described reality as organized in ascending levels— inert matter, biological life, psychic life, and spirit—each level transcending the one below by directing itself beyond its own immediate condition, with spirit defined by full intentional openness to values and other persons.
Philosophy as a rigorous, professional discipline
Romero argued that Latin American philosophy needed to move beyond literary essayism toward systematic, professionally rigorous philosophical work, and his own institution-building at Buenos Aires and La Plata helped establish philosophy as an academic discipline in Argentina.
Legacy
Romero is regarded as a founding figure of professional academic philosophy in twentieth-century Argentina and Latin America, and his systematic metaphysics of transcendence remained a central reference point in Latin American philosophical anthropology through the mid twentieth century.