The Reception of Condillac in Argentina: From the Nineteenth-Century Professors of idéologie to José Ingenieros

Abstract

This chapter will explore the reception of Condillac in Argentina from the nineteenth-century to the early twenty century focusing in two cases. First, the reception by nineteenth-century professors of idéologie (Juan Crisóstomo Lafinur, Juan Manuel Fernández de Agüero, Luis José de la Peña and Diego Alcorta) that was mediated by the interpretations of Antoine Destutt de Tracy, Pierre Jean Cabanis and Pierre Laromiguière. Second, the reception in the early twenty century by José Ingenieros, whose narrative was conditioned by his own political and philosophical agenda. In each case, we can identify different receptions that must be interpreted not only in light of the philosophical concerns of the authors that made them but also in light of the wide cultural and politic context in which they emerged. In the first half of the nineteenth century Condillac was received as a philosopher who integrated the new philosophical canon that would replace the Scholastic canon that had been imposed by the colonial regime. In the early twentieth century, Ingenieros inserted Condillac into a narrative that, starting with Bacon and Locke, culminated in positivism, a current that, in his view, offered the best framework to make Argentina shine in the concert of civilized nations.