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Early Positivistic Thought and Ideological Conflict in Chile
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
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Although virtually unstudied, the introduction of the philosophy of positivism into Chile acted as a catalyst upon the development of that country during the decade before the War of the Pacific. Scholars have given appropriate attention to the influence of positivism as it became significant in other Latin American countries during the eighteen-seventies, and Leopold Zea has discussed the importance of that philosophic system in Chile during the years which followed the west coast conflict of 1879-1883. However, despite the ever increasing number of articles and monographs dealing with positivism, the historians of Latin America have ignored the philosophy's growth in the Republic of Chile before the war and the effect of that growth upon the ideologies already extant in the Pacific coast nation.
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References
1 See, for example, Costa, Joâo Cruz, A History of Ideas in Brazil (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), pp. 82–202 Google Scholar; and, Zea, Leopoldo, El Positivismo en México (Mexico, 1943).Google Scholar
2 Zea, Leopoldo, The Latin American Mind (Norman, Oklahoma, 1963), Chapter 2, Part II.Google Scholar In Chapter 2, Part I, Zea discussed the developing philosophic views of José Lastarria as he first contacted Comtean positivism in 1868; Zea, however, did not relate Lastarria's adoption of the philosophy to the historical patters of Chile during those years.
3 For an interesting discussion of the political importance of the Latin American pensador, see Stabb, Martin S., In Quest of Identity (Chapel Hill, 1967), pp. 3–7.Google Scholar
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5 The importance of such scientific work to the positivists is demonstrated throughout the periodical Philosophe Positive edited by Littré, Emile and Wyrouboff, G. (31 vols.; Paris, 1867–1883).Google Scholar
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9 The “Law of Three Stages” was the belief that society passed through three distinct periods: the theological, the metaphysical and the scientific. The French positivists placed greater emphasis upon this concept than others did.
10 Here see the discussion and analysis in Zea, Latin American Mind, Chapter 2, Part I.
11 Lastarria, José Victorino, La América (Santiago, 1867), p. 93.Google Scholar
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35 Domingo Santa María to José V. Lastarria, July 30, 1865, in Revista Chilena, Nos. 1–5 (1917), 93. For the general background of the question, see Schofield, Julian E., The Religious Issue in Chilean Politics, 1860–1925 (Unpublished M. A. Thesis, University of California at Berkeley, June, 1951), pp. 26–30.Google Scholar
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52 Ibid., p. 143.
53 Alemparte, Justo Arteaga, “Diogenes” y Otros Escritos (Santiago, 1956),Google Scholar editorial of the journal “Diogenes,” November 17, 1871, p. 340.
54 Cifuentes, , Memorias, 1, 406.Google Scholar
55 Ibid., II, 22; Encina, Francisco, Historia de Chile: Desde la prehistoria hasta 1891 (20 vols.; Santiago, 1949–1950), 15, 240.Google Scholar
56 Cifuentes, , Memorias, 2, 23–24.Google Scholar
57 Barros, Orrego, Barros Arana, p. 156,Google Scholar notes that initially even the radicals Justo Arteaga and Manuel A. Matta supported the decrees of January.
58 E. Altamirano to M. L. Amunátegui, January 19, 1872, in Amunátegui Solar (ed.), Archivo Epistolar, II, 460. El Ferrocarril and La Patria initially supported the decrees and then reversed their position.
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65 November 21, 1873. Other than in a few isolated incidences like the above, the terms “clericalism” and “anti-clericalism” are seldom encountered in the arguments of the Conservatives and Liberals. This peculiar fact may be explained by the clear and certain identification of the clericists with the Conservative party encouraged by the refusal of many influential Chilean religious to accept the ultra-montane concepts so influential in other countries during the seventies. Crescente Errázuriz, a half-brother of Federico and a priest, worked with particular effectiveness to keep the clerícalists and the national Conservatives united against the Liberals and the positivists. See Errázuriz, Crescente, Algo de lo que he visto. Memorias (Santiago, 1914), pp. 182, 193–201.Google Scholar The solidarity of the Conservatives did weaken momentarily, however, in mid-1878 when the death of Archbishop Valdivieso opened a dispute as to the right of nomination of the Archbishop’s successor; yet even then the sobriquets “clericalists” or “anticlericalists” were infrequently heard; see ibid., pp. 246, 254, 265–278.
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69 Horace Rumbold to Earl Derby, Santiago, September 12, 1874, PRO-FO-16, Reel 181, Document 248.
70 For a concise but acute summary of the anti-clerical actions of the later Errázuriz government see Espinosa, Julio Bañados, Balmaceda (2 vols.; Paris, 1884), 1, 33.Google Scholar See also Cabero, . Chile, pp. 225–251.Google Scholar
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74 Valparaiso and West Coast Mail, July 19, 1873.
75 C. A. Logan to Hamilton Fish, No. 141. April 3, 1875. In Despatches.
76 Ibid.
77 See the address of Isidoro Errázuriz to the Senate, September 2, 1875, in Obras de Isidoro Errázuriz: Discursos parlamentarios (Santiago, 1910); see also Edwards, , Cuatro Presidentes, 2, 365–373.Google Scholar
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81 González, Marcial, “El Trabajador Rural,” Revista Chilena, 6 (1876), 525.Google Scholar Underline is in the original. During the difficult years of the immediate pre-war period, and then during the war itself, heterodox positivism gave way to the more collective authoritarian type. After the war orthodox Comtean positivism spread widely throughout the republic; see Zea, Latin American Mind, Chapter 2, Part II.
82 Lastarria, , Recuerdos, p. 532.Google Scholar See also Lagarrigue, , Trozos, p. 35,Google Scholar as quoted in Zea, , Latin American Mind, p. 150.Google Scholar
83 Lastarria, , Recuerdos, pp. 540–541.Google Scholar
84 See Zorobabel Rodríguez’ study of Lastarria’s, Lecciones in Rodríguez, Miscelanea, 1, 1–86 Google Scholar; as well as Rodríguez’ “Nuestro Sistema Social,” an editorial of El Independiente, January 24, 1875, included ibid., I, 152–153.
85 Galdames, , Letelier, pp. 34, 35, 44.Google Scholar
86 Lagarrigue, Trozos, as cited in Zea, , Latin American Mind, p. 151.Google Scholar Jorge Lagarrigue offers an interesting and lengthy explanation of his conversion in his “Una conversion a la Relijión de la Humanidad,” Revista Chilena, XIV (1879), 228–246.
87 Hernández, Fuentealba, Courcelle-Seneuil, p. 15.Google Scholar Lastarria’s translation is published as “Moral Racional,” Revista Chilena, III (1875), 418–465. The prologue to the translation is a letter from Lastarria to José Francisco Vergara, Santiago, October 14, 1875; in the letter Lastarria notes that he hopes that the translation will serve to “diffuse the scientific knowledge most useful and practical in ordinary life.”
88 Zañartu, Sady, Lastarria, El Hombre Solo (Santiago, 1938), p. 3.Google Scholar This entente was surprising as Lastarria and Pinto long had been personal enemies; see ibid., p. 183, and Encina, , Historia, 16, 20, 36, 44.Google Scholar
89 Lastarria, José Victorino, El primer ministerio de la administración Pinto, 1876 (Santiago, 1908), pp. 10–11.Google Scholar
90 Ibid., p. 1. See also page 91, ibid., when the harassed minister complains of “el atraso i falto de disciplina en los círculos liberales,” and page 142, ibid., as he protests that “el Ministro no tenia la culpa de que los liberales no tuvieran nociones exactas de la libertad.”
91 Ibid., p. 20.
92 lbid., pp. 16–17.
93 Grandón, Alejandro Fuenzalida, Lastarria i su tiempo (2 vols.; Santiago, 1911), 2, 111–112.Google Scholar Lastarria, , Ministerio, pp. 143–144, 551–552.Google Scholar
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94 For a developed discussion of this theme, see the author’s “The Willingness to War: A Portrait of the Republic of Chile during the Years preceding the War of the Pacific” (Un-published doctoral dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, November, 1967).
97 This argument should not be regarded as fixing the ‘blame’ for the start of the war upon Chile; preliminary research suggests that several other countries of Latin America showed the same predisposition to war when, during the 1860s and 1870s, their dreams and hopes of the future seemed to be frustrated.
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