Cultura y Civilización: Reflexiones sobre la historia de las ciencias humanas.

Sin resume

El malestar con el imperio: críticas españolas hacia la política americana (1619-1812)

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Intellektuel historie

Temaets tredje artikel af Anthony Pagden, der ikke indgik i konferencen, forsøger at lægge lidt luft til den nyhistoricisme, som Pagden mener ligger i Skinners, Pococks og Dunns polemiske indsatser overfor ”doxograferne” (Rorty). Pagden tilhører inderkredsen af Cambridge-skolen og forholder sig her til vigtige filosofiske diskussioner omkring dette forskningsprogram

Cosmopolitismo, patriotismo, nacionalismo: ¿qué camino hacia una Europa ilustrada

A todos los efectos, Diógenes el cínico (Diógenes el perro) era un personaje repulsivo. Vivía dentro de un barril en la plaza del mercado de la Atenas del siglo iv a.C. y denunciaba todos los aspectos de la vida civilizada convencional: matrimonio, familia, política, moderación sexual o física de cualquier tipo, distinción social en todas sus formas, e incluso a la misma ciuda

Las bases ideológicas de la disputa sobre el dominium y los derechos naturales de los indios americanos

The essay examines the history of the debates over the natural rights, what, in the language of neo-Thomism was called dominium, of the American Indians prior to the arrival of the Spanish. The author argues that for the Dominican Francisco de Vitoria and his heirs there was no reason to believe that, under natural law, the Indians were not in full and legitimate possession of the lands they occupied before the arrival of the Europeans, and that the conquest of the Americans were therefore illicit. He examines how this debate was conducted from the sixteenth until the eighteenth century and how, in the end, the only secure grounds which could be claimed were not ones of possession or of sovereignty but instead what Vitoria had called the right of “Natural society and communication”. This implied that territorial occupation of one nation by another was indeed illicit and that the only legitimate interaction between peoples had to free exchange. By making these claims the Spanish theologians of the sixteenth-century had, in fact made possible the later arguments for a necessary transition from territorial imperium to a global community based on trade.El ensayo examina la historia del debate sobre los derechos naturales, lo que en el lenguaje del neo-tomismo se llamaba dominium, de los indios americanos antes de la llegada de los españoles. El autor argumenta que para el dominico Francisco de Vitoria y sus sucesores no había razones para creer que, bajo el derecho natural, los indios no estuvieran en completa y legítima posesión de las tierras que ocupaban antes de la llegada de los europeos, y que la conquista de los americanos era, por consiguiente, ilícita. Se examina el desarrollo del debate desde el siglo XVI hasta el siglo XVIII, y cómo, al fi nal, las únicas bases seguras que se podían aducir no eran la posesión o la soberanía, sino lo que en su lugar Vitoria llamó el derecho de la sociedad natural y de la comunicación. Esto implicaba que la ocupación territorial de una nación por otra era de hecho ilícita y que la única interacción legítima entre los pueblos era la del libre comercio. Al hacer estas reivindicaciones los teólogos españoles del siglo XVI habían en realidad hecho posible una transición necesaria de los últimos argumentos desde la noción de imperium territorial a la de comunidad global basada en el comercio

¿Qué es la Ilustración?

Pese a todo el cuestionamiento y toda la enorme industria histórica creada en torno a la Ilustración, estamos aún lejos de estar seguros de lo que todo esto significa: ¿Qué era exactamente esa “luz”? ¿Cuál era su fuente? ¿Estamos hablando de un proyecto filosófico o de un movimiento social —o de una combinación de ambos, o de ninguna de las dos cosas? ¿Tales términos —“ilustración”, “filosofía”, entre otros— significan lo mismo para todos en todas partes? Palabras clave: Ilustración, Condorcet, filosofía, modernidad, razón. Abstract: Yet for all the questioning, and for all the massive historical industry which has grown up around the Enlightenment, we are still far from certain what all this means. What exactly was that light? What was its source? Are we talking about a philosophical project or a social movement—or a combination of both, or neither? There is a somewhat different question: did these terms —“enlightenment” “philosophy” and so on— mean the same thing to everyone everywhere?Keywords: Enlightenment, Condorcet, philosophy, modernity, reason

Identity, enlightenment and political dissent in late colonial Spanish America

During the long crisis of the Spanish empire between 1810 and 1825, the Creole leaders of Spanish American independence asserted a new identity for the citizens of the states which they sought to establish, calling them 'Americanos'. This general title was paralleled and often supplanted by other political neologisms, as movements for independence and new polities took shape in the various territories of Spanish America. In New Spain, the insurgents who fought against royalist government during the decade after 181 o tried to rally fellow 'Mexicans' to a common cause; at independence in 1821, die Creole political leadership created a 'Mexican empire', the title of which, with its reference to the Aztec empire which had preceded Spain's conquest, was designed to evoke a 'national' history shared by all members of Mexican society. In South America, die leaders of the new republics also sought to promote patriotic feelings for territories which had been converted from administrative units of Spanish government into independent states. Thus, San Martin and O'Higgins convoked 'Chileans' to the cause of independence in the old Captaincy-General of Chile; shortly afterwards and with notably less success, San Martin called upon 'Peruvians' to throw off Spanish rule. Bolivar was, likewise, to call 'Colombians' to his banner in die erstwhile Viceroyalty of New Granada, before advancing south to liberate Peru in die name of 'Peruvians', and Upper Peru in die name of 'Bolivians', where die Republic which his military feats and political vision made possible was named after him

Bostonia: 1998-1999, no. 1, 3-4

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

"On the Spot": travelling artists and Abolitionism, 1770-1830

Until recently the visual culture of Atlantic slavery has rarely been critically scrutinised. Yet in the first decades of the nineteenth century slavery was frequently represented by European travelling artists, often in the most graphic, sometimes voyeuristic, detail. This paper examines the work of several itinerant artists, in particular Augustus Earle (1793-1838) and Agostino Brunias (1730–1796), whose very mobility along the edges of empire was part of a much larger circulatory system of exchange (people, goods and ideas) and diplomacy that characterised Europe’s Age of Expansion. It focuses on the role of the travelling artist, and visual culture more generally, in the development of British abolitionism between 1770 and 1830. It discusses the broad circulation of slave imagery within European culture and argues for greater recognition of the role of such imagery in the abolitionist debates that divided Britain. Furthermore, it suggests that the epistemological authority conferred on the travelling artist—the quintessential eyewitness—was key to the rhetorical power of his (rarely her) images. Artists such as Earle viewed the New World as a boundless source of fresh material that could potentially propel them to fame and fortune. Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858), on the other hand, was conscious of contributing to a global scientific mission, a Humboldtian imperative that by the 1820s propelled him and others to travel beyond the traditional itinerary of the Grand Tour. Some artists were implicated in the very fabric of slavery itself, particularly those in the British West Indies such as William Clark (working 1820s) and Richard Bridgens (1785-1846); others, particularly those in Brazil, expressed strong abolitionist sentiments. Fuelled by evangelical zeal to record all aspects of the New World, these artists recognised the importance of representing the harsh realities of slave life. Unlike those in the metropole who depicted slavery (most often in caustic satirical drawings), many travelling artists believed strongly in the evidential value of their images, a value attributed to their global mobility. The paper examines the varied and complex means by which visual culture played a significant and often overlooked role in the political struggles that beset the period