Hispanic philosophy in the age of discovery

Abstract

WHITE, Kevin, ed. Philosophy in the Age of Discovery. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, vol. 29. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1997. xv + 319 pp. Cloth, $59.95--Collections tend to the hazardous. The present volume illustrates the pitfalls as well as the successes of the genre. Fifteen contributions uneven in quality and disparate in theme are here placed under the serendipitous umbrella of Hispanic Philosophy. The period under consideration--the sixteenth century and part of the seventeenth--was a time of crisis, a crucible out of which new worlds would emerge. It extends from Erasmus's enthusiastic encomium of the state of the liberal arts in Spain to a few decades prior to Cadalso's stinging indictment of Salamanca as an institution which, teaching nothing of substance, produces men who have the ability to construct 77,777 syllogisms. This period, as Gracia indicates in his informative study, had a profound and lasting impact on the thinking of Europeans, yet has been largely ignored. Spain, while discovering the New World, remained immured in the Old World of scholastic thought which it effectively exported to America. This universe of discourse was put to work debating the issues of the day of which the most important was that raised by the conquista itself, and is reflected in the Gran Requisitorio in which diverse views were thrashed out to the edification of all and the satisfaction of few if any. The questions posed by Spanish rule are nicely treated by Beuchot, Andujar, and Alvira/Cruz, the latter two focusing on the debate between Gines de Sepulveda and Las Casas. Sepulveda maintained that the American natives were debased, corrupted by unnatural mores and traditions. Because of their degradation the natives should be subjected to a period of constraint, of tutelage, so as to elevate them to a level at which evangelization could properly take place. The work of civilizing precedes the work of evangelizing. Las Casas considered that the natives resembled men in the state of nature and that they, as all men, could be won over by exhortation and example. The outrage provoked by the depredation of the encomienda system, joined with Las Casas's hatred of force as totally incompatible with the Gospel, led to his outspoken advocacy of the American natives. Both Andujar and Alvira/Cruz, though tilting slightly in different directions, portray the encounter both objectively and in vivid colors, adumbrating later debates on colonialism and what Viereck called the vertical barbarian. To view the debate as a struggle between Christian metaphysical egalitarianism and pagan cultural elitism as do Alvira/Cruz is an interesting hypothesis ... but one that requires further buttressing. Andujar's suggestion that Las Casas foreshadowed a new way of understanding relations between peoples can act as a prod to future scholarly work. The gems of the volume are possibly the contributions of Wallace and Deeley. …