Greenleaf Scholar Discusses Mexican Counter Enlightenment
March 2, 2015
The Latin American & Iberian Institute (LAII) and University Libraries announce a presentation with George A. Klaeren, a doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of Kansas and a Richard E. Greenleaf Visiting Library Scholar. Klaeren will present on "'Our Holy System': Consilience and the Unity of Knowledge in the Mexican Counter-Enlightenment, 1680-1815" on Thursday, March 5, 2015, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. in the Zimmerman Library Waters Room. For reference, please see the event flyer.
As a recipient of a Greenleaf Visiting Library Scholartravel grant, Klaeren visits UNM in Spring 2015 to work with UNM's Latin American library collections. The travel grant, funded by a generous gift to the LAII from Dr. Richard E. Greenleaf, provide faculty and graduate students in the US and abroad the opportunity to visit UNM to work with one of the largest and most complete Latin American library collections in the United States.
Klaeren's thesis, "Encountering the Enlightenment: New Science, Religion, and Catholic Epistemologies across the Iberian Atlantic, 1680-1815," examines the way that traditional modes of thinking intersected with the new philosophies of the enlightenment in the Spanish empire. He is particularly interested in the history of the dialogue between religion, science, and magic and is currently working on the history of the philosophy of science in eighteenth-century Spain.
In his presentation, Klaeren will consider how, throughout the eighteenth century, drastic changes were occurring in the intellectual climate of New Spain. Commonly referred to collectively as the "new philosophy" or the "new science," these new methods of thought impacted the sphere of the religious and intellectual thinkers of the Spanish empire on both sides of the Atlantic. To many thinkers and writers, these changes were not only direct challenges to established certainties, but represented calls for radical methodologies that would lead to materialism, atheism, and the ultimate ruin of Catholic society. This presentation assesses the reactionary position of many Mexican intellectuals to an "enlightenment epistemology," particularly in response to ilustrado publications during the mid-eighteenth century. Often labeled antiilustrados (anti-enlightened) or traditionalista/casticista (traditionalist), these reactionary thinkers have been portrayed as dogmatic, irrational, and one-dimensional figures. Emphasizing the theme of consilience, or the unity of knowledge, this research demonstrates why these traditionalistas argued against a "Catholic Enlightenment" of eighteenth-century Spanish Empire, what their specific objections were, and how these objections were rationalized and seen as legitimate arguments at the time. It demonstrates how criollo, Mexican religious intellectuals contested for epistemological hegemony in the mid-eighteenth century, proposing alternative, and at times, mutually exclusive, systems for understanding and the pursuit of truth.
