Positivism, Science and 'The Scientists' in Porfirian Mexico

This innovative monograph is
of major significance for not only students and academics undertaking research
on the history of Mexico during the long dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, but also scholars specializing in the history of
ideas, philosophy and science. Unlike previous discussions of positivism in
Latin America, this book presents a detailed analysis of the English thinker,
Herbert Spencer's original works as a necessary gateway into the discussion of
the thinking of 'The Scientists'. Its principal purpose is to revisit the
influential thesis of Leopoldo Zea which proposed that 'The Scientists'
throughout this period were Spencerian positivists.







This book offers a revisionist
analysis of the original papers of 'The Scientists', Francisco Bulnes and Justo
Sierra, as well as their political and philosophical ideas and activities. This
analysis demonstrates that their eclectic discourses used the ideas of the
American Social Darwinists, and those from Spencer, Darwin, August Comte, and
other European writers, concluding that 'The Scientists' lacked a clear leader
and had an ambivalent relationship with Diaz. It
interprets 'The Scientists' not as 'heroes' or 'villains', but as men
struggling to appropriate European philosophical advances into their quest to
modernise Mexico.