The Enlightenment Surfaces in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Scientific Thinking Attempts to Deliver Order and Progress

Hale Charles A. , The transformation of liberalism in late nineteenth-century Mexico (Princeton, 1989).

Costa Cruz João , A history of ideas in Brazil: The development of philosophy in Brazil and the evolution of national history (Berkeley, 1964), 82–271.

Lenzer Gertrude , (ed.), Auguste Comte and positivism: The essential writings (New York, 1975), 326.

Lenzer , Auguste Comte (ref. 3), 83.

Comte in Ferré Frederick , Auguste Comte, Introduction to positive philosophy (Indianapolis, 1998), 11.

José Fuentes Mares, in Prologue , Gabino Barreda: Estudios , ed. by Mares Fuentes José (Mexico City, 1941), x. Further information on Barreda is available from Augustín Aragón, “Ala memoria del Dr. Gabino Barreda”, in Pensamiento positivista latinoamericano, i, ed. by Zea Leopoldo (Caracas, 1980), 199–231; and from Escobar Edmundo (ed.), Gabino Barreda: La educación positivista en México (Mexico City, 1978), who, in Estudio introductivo, xi, says Barreda did not finish his medical studies in Paris because of his interest in philosophy. He completed his studies in Mexico City, writes Escobar. See also Diccionario Porrúa de historia, biographía y geographía de México (Mexico, 1986), 5th edn, i, 226–7.

For a summary of Mexico's colonial background, independence struggle and post-independence chaos see Krauze Enrique , Mexico: Biography of power (New York, 1997), 1–124. See also Brian Hamnett, A concise history of Mexico (Cambridge, 1999), 112–76; Mark A. Burkholder and Lyman L. Johnson, Colonial Latin America (New York and Oxford, 2001), 330–9; Wilbert H. Timmons, Morelos: Priest soldier statesman of Mexico (El Paso, TX, 1963), 40–41: Hugh Hamill, The Hidalgo revolt: Prelude to Mexican independence (Gainesville, FL, 1966); Timothy E. Anna, Forging Mexico (Lincoln, NE, 1998), and Jaime E. Rodriguez O. (ed.), Mexico in the age of democratic revolutions, 1750–1859 (Boulder, CO, 1994).

Krauze , Mexico (ref. 7), 133.

Krauze , Mexico (ref. 7), 88–89, 158–9.

Krauze , Mexico (ref. 7), 167–71. See also Jan Bazant, “The Liberal revolution, 1855–1876”, Chapter 3, in his A concise history of Mexico (Cambridge, 1977), 62–95.

Krauze , Mexico (ref. 7) 152–204.

Richard N. Sinkin describes how power shifted from the national legislature to the presidency under the pressures of war and nation-building in The Mexican reform, 1855–1876 (Austin, TX, 1979). Chapter 4, “The constitutional dictatorship”, 75–91.

Zea Leopoldo , in El Positivismo en Mexico (Mexico City, 1968), 195, quotes Horacio Barreda, Gabino's orthodox positivist son, as saying Juárez “understood that his glorious political achievement needed, as an indispensable addition to guarantee its continuance into the most distant future, a radical reform in Public Instruction that would be in perfect harmony with the republican institutions now established” (author's translation).

Krauze , Mexico (ref. 7), 13.

Alamán describes his plan in “Universidad y Colegios” in Documentas diversos (Mexico City, 1945), 222–7.

Mora María Luis José , Obras sueltas (Mexico City, 1963), 109–31, especially 124–5.

Hale Charles A. , Mexican liberalism in the age of Mora, 1821–1853 (New Haven, CONN, 1968), 167, 251.

Mora , Obras sueltas (ref. 16), 122.

Monroy Guadalupe , “Instrucción Publica”, in Historia moderna de México, ed. by Villegas Cosio Daniel (Mexico City, 1956), iii, 638.

Hale , Mexican liberalism (ref. 17), 175.

Barreda Gabino , “Oracíon cívica” (Guanajuato, 1867), 4–5. Here Barreda follows Comte's ranking of the sciences from the simple to the increasingly complex, that is, from the most deductive, mathematics, to the most inductive, sociology (author's translation).

Barreda , “Oracíon cívica” (ref. 21), 29. Comte put forward the “sacred formula of Positivism — Love for principle, and Order for basis; Progress for end”, in Auguste Comte, The catechism of positive religion, 3rd edn (revised and corrected, 1891), trans. by Congreve Richard (Clifton, NJ, 1973), 45. Barreda simply substituted Liberty for Love.

Barreda , “Carta a Riva Palacio”, in Mares Fuentes , Gabino Barreda (ref. 6), 15.

Mares Fuentes , Gabino Barreda (ref. 6), xii.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 141. Ernesto Lemoine, La Escuela National Prepatoria de Gabino Barreda (Mexico City, 1970) cites “friendship” between Barreda and Contreras Elizade.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 140. See Aragón, “A la memoria” (ref. 6), 211.

Oliveira Ramos Antonio , La formación de Juárez (Mexico City, 1972), 186–93. See also Benito Juárez, “Apuntes para Mis Hijos”, in Benito Juárez, documentas, discursos y correspondencia, ed. by Tamayo Jorge L. (Mexico City, 1964), i, 21–273. Hamill, The Hidalgo revolt (ref. 7), 6–7.

Hamnett , A concise history (ref. 7), 97–98. See Elías Trabulse, “Un Científico Mexicano del Siglo XVII: Fray Diego Rodríguez y Su Obra”, in Historia Mexicana (Mexico City, 1974) xxiv, no. 1, 36–69. Rodríguez observes, 53: “In things natural and physical, nothing convinces with more serenity than the demonstrations that are palpable to the senses” (author's translation).

Krauze , Mexico (ref. 7), 81.

Hamill , The Hidalgo revolt (ref. 7), 54–57.

Hamill , The Hidalgo revolt (ref. 7), 55–56.

Krauze , Mexico (ref. 7), 80–82. Hamill, The Hidalgo revolt (ref. 7), 56.

Hamill , The Hidalgo revolt (ref. 7), 71.

Krauze , Mexico (ref. 7), 28. See also Hamill, The Hidalgo revolt (ref. 7), 55, and Burkholder and Johnson Colonial (ref. 7), 238.

For information on Mexico's seminaries in Juárez's time, see Lee James H. , “Clerical Education in nineteenth-century Mexico: The Conciliar Seminaries of Mexico City and Guadalajara, 1821–1910”, The Americas, xxxvi, no. 4 (April 1980), 465–77.

Lee , “Clerical education” (ref. 35), 470, writes that Jacquier's “Cartesian methodology marked a departure from Scholasticism but whose focus on metaphysics left little space for natural sciences”.

Tamayo , (ed.), Benito Juárez (ref. 27) presents Juárez's academic records, 376–9.

Juárez in Apuntes in Tamayo (ref. 27), 93–96.

Juárez in Apuntes in Tamayo (ref. 27), 226. See also, Brian Hamnett, Juárez (London, 1994), 22–23; Carlos Velasco Perez's El Coloso de Guelatao (Mexico City, 1982), 46–55, and Justo Sierra, Obras completas del maestro Justo Sierra (Mexico City, 1948), xiii, 43–46. Velasco Pérez, 50–51, 55, quotes documentation showing that Juárez was salaried in 1830, a year before completing his law studies, as a replacement experimental physics teacher assigned the class of an unavailable incumbent.

Oliviera Ramos , La formación (ref. 27), 226–7. See also Hamnett, Juárez (ref. 39), 76.

Hamnett , Juárez (ref. 39), 22. Hamnett, 14, 15, 23, 271, 280, writes of Gómez Farias and Zavala: Valentín Gómez Farías, a Liberal reformer, vice president 1832–34, under General Antonio López de Santa Anna, whose disinterest in serving as President effectively gave Gómez Farías this power until overthrown by Santa Anna in 1834, tried to limit privileges of Church and Army and secularize education. Lorenzo de Zavala was a radical Liberal who, along with the Moderate Liberal José María Luis Mora, influenced Gómez Farías and who led an insurrection in 1828 following the electoral defeat of Liberal President Vicente Guerrero “which broke the constitutional order for the first time”, 14. Zavala supported the Texans in their secession movement and became the first vice-president of Texas.

In 1638, according to Trabulse , “Fray Diego Rodriguez” (ref. 28), 63, Rodríguez calculated the longitude of the Valley of Mexico and Covarrubias later did the same.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 226.

http://www.paperofrecord.com.

Lemoine , La escuela (ref. 25), 16–17.

Aragón , “A la memoria” (ref. 6), i, 199–231, see p. 212.

Osorio y Carvajal Ramón , Juárez, restaurador de la republica (Mexico City, 1972), 421–4.

Tamayo , (ed.), Benito Juárez (ref. 27), xii, 841.

Aragón , A la memoria (ref. 6), 203.

Lemoine , La escuela (ref. 25), 17.

See text of law in La legislación mexicana, ed. by Dublán Manuel Lozano José María (Mexico City, 1878) x, 193–205. The curriculum text included “Lógica”, and, separately, “Metafísica”, “Moral” and “Ideololgia”, 194. Hale, Transformation (ref. 1), 139, points out that a national university no longer existed. Maximilian had put a final end to the Royal and Pontifical University, founded in 1551, in 1865. Liberals had abolished the university in 1833, 1837 and 1861 and conservatives had reinstated it.

Zea Leopoldo , Positivism in Mexico (Austin, TX, 1974), 150. Positivism is a translation of the first part of Zea's El Positivismo, ref. 13.

Monroy in “Instrucción Pública” (ref. 19), iii, 631–743, see p. 706.

MacEdo Pablo , “Discurso”, in Discursos y poesía en honor del Dr. D. Gabino Barreda (Mexico City, 1898), 24–34, see pp. 24–27. Macedo notes that the “Plan of Lares” was based on the law of 18 August 1843. For law text, see decree 2640, in La legislación mexicana (ref. 51), iv, 515–23. Macedo does not further identify “Lares”, who no doubt was Teodosio Lares (1806–70), a prominent conservative jurist who served as Minister of Justice to Santa Anna, Mramón and Maximilian. Lares was director of the Institute Literario de Zacatecas, 1837–1848. See Emeterio Valverde Téllez, Biblografia filosofica Mexicana (Mexico City, 1989) i, 369–74. Page 374 lists “Plan general-de-estudios, Folleto en 4o de 62 pgs. B.V. Se publicó en 19 de Diciembre de 1854 firmado por Teodosio Lares, Mnistro de Justicia, Negocios Eclesiásticos é Instrucción Pública”. (The words “literario” or “literatura” in nineteenth-century Mexico encompassed a wide range of intellectual and academic subjects, e.g., Instituto Literario de Zacatecas.).

Comte in Lenzer, Auguste Comte (ref. 3), 195–217.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 170–1, writes that logic texts were accompanied by “oral lessons”.

See Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 143–4 for ENP curriculum.

Juárez who sought to raise the Indian population from their marginal existence, is quoted as saying: “And he put his faith and hope in the main instrument of regeneration, the school.…” and further, “I would like to see the Indians converted to protestantism; they need a religion that will teach them to read and not to waste their pennies on candles for the saints”, by Justo Sierra in his Evolución política del pueblo Mexicano (Caracas 1977), 269 (author's translation). Barreda's own perspective on Protestantism was included in his “Civic Oration”. He said that the Reformation's “banner was the right of free inquiry”. Barreda, Oracíon cívica (ref. 21), 9. José Luis María Mora, as Charles A. Hale writes, promoted the importation of Protestant English bibles as the Mexican agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, carrying on “extensive correspondence” with the Society from 1829–33. See Hale, Mexican liberalism (ref. 17), 170. Brian Hamnett tells us that the declaration of state protection of religious liberty by Juárez's Liberal civil war Government in Vera Cruz 1860 “opened the way for a systematic entry of Protestantism into Mexico. Liberals extended their faith in competition to religion as well. The Reform Laws allowed the formation and development of Protestant groups among the population. Henceforth, Protestantism would be associated with the Liberal project…”, Hamnett, Juárez (ref. 39), 111. Praise for Protestantism as a progressive force appeared in 1875 in Sebastían Lerdo's (Juarez's presidential successor) Diario oficial, commenting on a letter of a young Protestant minister, José María González: “[González] toils to conciliate religion with the sciences, with the advances of the century, and with republican institutions; he propagates respect for the law and love for the country; he counsels tolerance; he defends the dogmas of equality and liberty; and, for all this, he must have our poor sympathies.” See Knapp Frank A. Jr. , The life of Sebastán Lerdo de Tejada (Austin, TX, 1951), 220.

See Barreda Gabino , in his “Invitación a los cuidadanos profesores de las escuelas nacionales”, original text reproduced in Escobar, Gabino Barreda (ref. 6), 259–61.

Schulte Josephine , “Gabino Barreda y su misión diplomática en Alemania: 1878–1879”, Historia Mexicana , xiv, 230–52. Lourdes Alvarado notes that Barreda turned over his logic course to his disciple Porfirio Parra. His post as ENP director was given to Alfonso Herrera, known for keeping his “distance” from dogmatic positivism. Alvarado Lourdes , “Saber y Poder en la Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, 1878–1885”, in Saber y poder en Mexico: Siglos XVI al XX , Margarita Menegus, Coordinadora (Mexico City, 1997), 245–7.

See Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 249.

Zea , El Positivismo (ref. 13), 371, quotes key positivist Porfirio Parra as saying of positivists: “… we are eclectics within the positivist method; whether a doctrine comes from Spencer, from Mill or from Comte, we accept it if it is in accord with the common method they proclaim, rejecting it if it is not” (author's translation).

For the first decade of its existence, the ENP had used for the logic course a text written by the British philosopher, John Stuart Mil, entitled A system of logic, ratiocinative and inductive, being a connected view of the principles of evidence, and methods of scientific investigation. See Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 143, 170.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 169, 203.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 169–204, describes the debate and conflicting philosophical positions in a chapter on “The great textbook controversy”.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 173.

See Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 198, for Barranda's call. Although Mexican Liberals had generally prided themselves on their commitment to the democratic and federalist precepts of liberalism, a perceptive observer noticed a new type of liberal on the scene during the drawing up of the constitution of 1857. The observer, Francisco Zarco, noticed disciples of “government” and “order” active during the constitution framing. He later saw “men of administration”, “committed to material improvements irrespective of political principles”, around Juárez in the restored republic of 1867. See Hale, Transformation (ref. 1), 74. In a circular accompanying the 1867 call for elections, Sebastían Lerdo said “Now that the Reforma is completed, our greatest concern is good administration to consolidate its effects and to enjoy in peace its benefits”. See Dublán and Lozano, Legislación Mexicana (ref. 51), x, 51. Moreover, in his inaugural address in 1874, Lerdo said the nation had entered into “the new period of administration”. See Pi Antonia Llorens Suñer (ed.), Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada (Mexico City, 1989), 246.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 199.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 203.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 204.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 34.

In 1874, Sierra said: “Ardent supporters of the positivist method in teaching, we are not of the philosophy of the school. We believe in the existence of the spirit and we have said and will continue to maintain all of our lives that in this sense there is something very important lacking in the vast plan of secondary education in Mexico”. See Sierra, Obras (ref. 39), viii, 23.

“At the triumph of the Republic”, Sierra writes, “Juárez and Barreda came to an understanding and [as a result] all the scholastic relics, all routine philosophy, all vestige of pseudo-science which was the driving force of secondary-level teaching during the colonial centuries disappeared like magic”, Justo Sierra, Obras (ref. 39), v, 390 (author's translation).

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 254, describes Sierra as “clearly the preeminent intellectual of Porfirian Mexico”, a thinker marked by “flexibility of thought and a resistance to doctrinal rigidity”, 160. See also Augustín Yáñez, Don Justo Sierra (Mexico City, 1950), 150.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 27.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 76. See also Erika Pani, “Dreaming of a Mexican Empire: The political projects of the ‘Imperialistas’” in The Hispanic American historical review, lxxxii (1 February 2002), 1–31, see pp. 27–28.

Limantour Yves José , Apuntes sobre mi vida pública (Mexico City, 1965), 15. Also see Hale, Transformation (ref. 1), 107.

The científicos received their name on 10 November 1893 from the Mexican newspaper El Siglo XIX, applying this label to a group led by Justo Sierra in the Chamber of Deputies that supported a constitutional amendment to ensure the irremovability of federal judges, replacing regular elections with permanent appointments. See Hale, Transformation (ref. 1), 116–17.

Haber Stephen H. , Industry and underdevelopment: The industrialization of Mexico (Stanford, 1989), 123, comments: “It was the belief of the científicos and the investment community that the building of a vibrant economy, replete with railroads, steel mills, and large-scale commercial agriculture, would carry Mexico into the modern world. Though some sectors would undoubtedly suffer along the way, the end result would be the development of an enlightened polity and society”.

Comte in Lenzer , Auguste Comte (ref. 3), 393.

Ferré , Introduction (ref. 5), ix.

Comte in Lenzer , Auguste Comte (ref. 3), 347.

Comte in Lenzer , Auguste Comte (ref. 3), 359.

Comte in Lenzer , Auguste Comte (ref. 3), 320.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 200. See Ferré Introduction (ref. 5), ix, for the “careers”.

Comte , The catechism (ref. 22), 34.

Comte , The catechism (ref. 22), 45.

Comte , The catechism (ref. 22), 84.

Comte , The catechism (ref. 22), 55.

Barreda Gabino , in “De La Educación Moral”, Mares Fuentes , Gabino Barreda (ref. 6), 111–24, see p. 114 (author's translation).

Barreda Gabino in “De La Educación Moral” in Mares Fuentes , Gabino Barreda (ref. 6), 119 (author's translation).

Raat Dirk William , “Positivism in Diaz Mexico, 1867–1910: An essay in intellectual history” (PhD diss., University of Utah, 1967), microfilm, 259.

Zea , Positivism (ref. 52), 140–1. In the same vein, Hale, in Transformation (ref. 1), 151, tells us: “on numerous occasions, some of which were officially sponsored by the Preparatoria [ENP], Barreda evoked with grandiloquence the accomplishments of these heroes of the past, both national and universal”.

Comte in Lenzer , Auguste Comte (ref. 3), 340.

Navarro González Moisés , “Los positivistas Mexicanos en Francia”, Historia Mexicana”, ix, 119–129, seep. 124.

Raat , in Essay (ref. 92), 268, writes that: “By 1903, Aragón had established seminary study of positivist doctrine in Zacatecas.” In 1902, he reported initiation of a positivist curriculum in Michoacán School of Law.

Raat , in Essay (ref. 92), 129.

Raat , in Essay (ref. 92), 265–6, describes the annual commemoration meetings of the Sociedad Positivista: “Within these meetings a cult of worship was being developed around not the personality of Comte, but Barreda, Bichat, Laffitte and Mill as well. These sessions were usually characterized by an invocation, chamber music, readings of literary and poetic works, and at least one major discourse in honour of the person being eulogized.” In 1906 the Society honoured Mill in a ceremony attended by President Porfirio Díaz. At this ceremony, Horacio Barreda declared that the “Group of Humanity's servants had come in the name of the past and the present in order to realize their providential end, that of instituting the true intellectual and moral realm of Humanity”.

Zea Leopoldo has given attention to the writings of Gabino Barreda's son, Horacio, who already has informed us (see Zea, El positivismo (ref. 13), that when the ENP curriculum was organized, “scientific morality was slipped in only under the protective wing of logic.” Horacio, an orthodox positivist who worked closely with Agustín Aragón, gives us an insider's insight into the thinking of his father.

Zea , Positivism (ref. 52), 201.

Zea , Positivism (ref. 52), 201, footnote 27.

Zea , Positivism (ref. 52), 201.

Hale , Transformation (ref. 1), 233. Also, Jacqueline Rice in “Beyond the Científicos: The educational background of the Porfirian Elite”, in Aztlán, xiv, no. 2, Fall 1983, 289–306.

Yáñez , Don Justo Sierra (ref. 74), 157. Yáñez, 153–7 gives an account of Sierra's appointment and the creation of the Consejo in 1902. On p. 161, he lists a number of Consejo members, many identifiable as positivists or as positivistic, from 1902 to 1910. The list includes: Miguel and Pablo Macedo, Joaquín Casasús, Luis Méndez (Sierra's uncle), Rosendo Pineda, Porfirio Parra, Canon Francisco Labastida, Manuel Fernandez Leal, Luis Ruiz, Mguel Flores and José María Vigil. Yáñez also quotes Sierra, 156, as acknowledging that his longtime friend and associate, an original científico (see Hale, Transformation (ref. 1, 191), José Yves Limantour, Mexican Finance Minister (1893–1911), was “the principal author in the creation of the Subsecretaria and in my designation” (author's translation).

For information on Labastida see Diccionario Porrúa (ref. 14), i, 1146. See Aragón, “A la memoria” (ref. 6), 227.

Navarro González Moisés , “Los positivistas Mexicanos” (ref. 95), xix, 120. Gonzalez quotes Laffitte's Revue occidental as saying “le terrain étant maintenant bien préparé, il projetait de se consacrer à la propagande complète et systématique de notre doctrine.” On Comte's death in 1857, Laffite assumed leadership of the orthodox positivists. Those who accepted only the work of Comte's “first career” followed Émilie Littré. See William Dirk Raat in “Auguste Comte, Gabino Barreda And Positivism in Mexico”, in Aztlán, xiv, no. 2 (Fall 1983), 235–51.

González , Los positivistas (ref. 95), 120–1, writes that after Barreda died in 1881, Parra and Aragón maintained contact with the Laffitte group and the Revue Occidental published favourable articles about Barreda to 1928. He notes, 123, that Limantour, Sierra and Benito Juárez Maza, President Juárez's son, were on the executive commission working at the turn of the century to erect a statue of Comte in Paris.