The Positive (and Negative) Truth about Mexican Positivism as a 19th Century Mexican Educational Reform Philosophy

The assertion that: "Positivism in Mexico was primarily an educational philosophy. It tried to break away with the colonial mentality and bring an intellectual emancipation so the modern Mexican mind could step into the future, free from the shackles of obscurantism, superstition and face the truths of science, order and progress" (no source) is an accurate one. Further, according to "Comparative Social Movements: Mexico and the United States":

The Mexican Positivists were a group of elite intellectuals and social scientists that

provided guidance and advice to Porfirio Diaz, the dictator that controlled Mexic

Mexican-born social philosophers like Jose Vasconcelos and Antonio Caso, however, were comparatively abstract, non-scientific thinkers by comparison. They were, in that sense, both relatively non-Mexican Positivists; that is, each favored a more holistic, less systematic integration of philosophy, science, art, education into already inherent (instead of externally-imposed, European-based) social values (Salmeron; Marti; "Jose Vasconcelos"; "Antonio Caso"; "Auguste Compte"). Vasconcelos, for example, was "in favour [sic] of the education of the masses and oriented the nation's education efforts along secular, civic, and pan-American (americanista) lines" (Wikipedia).

developed a plan for economic recovery that was to be carried out through the next

Mexican Positivism had an especially strong, active, and influential supporter in Gabino Barreda. Barreda clearly regarded Mexican Positivism much more favorably than did either Vasconcelos or Caso. Perhaps this was due to his own (Paris-acquired) scientific and medical training, as well as his privileged social background ("The Porfiriato, 1876-1910"; Hutto; Marti. "Positivism and Human Values: The Quest for a Social Ideal", March 26, 1994).

which engenders love. The ambition to bring into concert all the resources

was defined as "the encyclopedic learning of the sciences in an ordered hierarchy"

Barreda. Led by Jose Ives Limantour, who served as adviser to Diaz, the cientificos

emphasized the incorporation of Mexico into the modern world system. This was to

be accomplished through suppression of the indigenous and mestizo [sic] aspects of

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