Description
Book SynopsisThis innovative monograph is of major significance for not only students and academics undertaking research on the history of Mexico during the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, but also scholars specializing in the history of ideas, philosophy and science. Unlike previous discussions of positivism in Latin America, this book presents a detailed analysis of the English thinker, Herbert Spencer’s original works as a necessary gateway into the discussion of the thinking of 'The Scientists'. Its principal purpose is to revisit the influential thesis of Leopoldo Zea which proposed that 'The Scientists' throughout this period were Spencerian positivists.
This book offers a revisionist analysis of the original papers of 'The Scientists', Francisco Bulnes and Justo Sierra, as well as their political and philosophical ideas and activities. This analysis demonstrates that their eclectic discourses used the ideas of the American Social Darwinists, and those from Spencer, Darwin, August Comte, and other European writers, concluding that 'The Scientists' lacked a clear leader and had an ambivalent relationship with Díaz. It interprets 'The Scientists' not as ‘heroes’ or ‘villains’, but as men struggling to appropriate European philosophical advances into their quest to modernise Mexico.
Trade ReviewBased on a substantive body of primary sources as well as the author's excellent knowledge of the history of science and philosophy in Mexico, this is an interesting book that breaks new ground. -- Prof. Dr Jens R. Hentschke
Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction
1 Porfirio Díaz, Positivism, and ‘The Scientists’
2 The origins of the Spencerian theory of evolution
3 The evolution of Spencerianism
4 Spencerian evolution: education, racism, and race in the thinking of ‘The Scientists’
5 The eradication of the myth: conclusions
BibliographyIndex
