Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Most studies of late nineteenth-century philosophy in Latin America have focused on positivism as the dominant influence. As Glick, Puig, and Ruiz Samper have noted, one trouble with this approach is that most of the scholars responsible for it “had little interest in science and did not regard it as falling under the purview of ‘philosophy.’” Indeed, they argue, in the countries with a Comtean tradition, “the Comtian phase was followed by an equally – if not more – tenacious Spencerian phase,” which resulted in the “ineluctable introduction of the Darwinian paradigm – first in social thought, then in biological” ( Glick et al., 2001 , p. x). In this chapter we will try to show how the introduction of Darwinian evolutionary theory transformed metaphysics and, in particular, the philosophical understanding of the temporality of being. In the interests of brevity, we will focus on one significant aspect of the impact of Darwinism on Latin America. We will consider how universal temporality was called into question after the publication of Origin of Species in 1859. The coexistence of continuity with discontinuity in nature implied that the operation of a single set of forces might not have the same consequences for all populations. The hope that progress and civilization would eventually result in the unification of the diverse populations of most Latin American countries became ... log in or subscribe to read full text