The liberalism of Ignacio V. Espinosa

Abstract

Espinosa was not, an original thinker indeed. His friends, colleagues and students praised him, but there was always more affection and devotion for the person than reflection on his intellectual achievements. He was a pious and unlearned popularizer of Herbert Spencer's legacy in the classroom and on the pages of newspapers and magazines. He died young and very young published his works. He is remembered in the national annals of Colombia fin de siècle for his graduate thesis “El Matrimonio” (1889), Filosofía experimental, extracto de las doctrinas psicológicas de Herbert Spencer (1891), for his lecture El Positivismo (1893) and for the Las Bases Positivas del Liberalismo (1895), his most representative book.