Aproximaciones al primer debate sobre Bentham en Colombia: concepciones antropológicas, disputas educativas, aspiraciones nacionales.

Abstract

Through the lens of historical-pedagogical anthropology, this article offers an approach to the first debate on Bentham in nineteenth-century Colombia. It first defines historical-pedagogical anthropology, showing that the field is an antropocritique rather than simply an appendage of either History or Anthropology. Second, it briefly contextualizes the early nineteenth-century debate and outlines an approach to study the topic. Finally, based on primary documents that were part of the debate, the article suggests a framework stretching from morality, that is to say the individual, to the society. In this sense, it argues that moral disagreements between debate participants should also be understood as national disagreements, or different ways of conceiving the nation-state. From this perspective, the analysis of nationalism needs to consider the anthropological conceptions implicit in nationalist movements and which lead them to formulate, perhaps unwittingly, what man, as a citizen, will be.

Keywords

• Historical-pedagogical Anthropology
• Bentham Debate
• Nationalism
• Anthropological Conceptions
• Education.