El veneno del materialismo: Juan Ignacio Gorriti, crítico de D`Holbach

Abstract

This paper aims to offer a contribution to the reconstruction of the Ibero-American reception itinerary of the Radical Enlightenment. In particular, of the ideas of one of the philosophes most reviled by Catholic orthodoxy: the Baron d’Holbach, whose texts were not only known and translated in Spain, but also in South America. Indeed, La morale universelle (1776) was established as an official study text in schools of Bolivia in 1827, provoking the reaction of the Argentine priest Juan Ignacio Gorriti. In order to clarify this episode, the text is organized into three sections. First, the figure and the main ideas of d’Holbach are presented; second, a brief reconstruction of the dissemination of his texts in Spain and South America is offered; finally, the arguments that Gorriti exposed against materialism in his Reflexiones (1836) are analysed. A book through which he tried to prevent American youth from being infected by «the poison of materialism».

Keywords

• forbidden books
• materialism
• reception
• d’holbach
• gorriti