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Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at es: Juan Benito Díaz de Gamarra y Dávalos:

Juan Benito Díaz de Gamarra y Dávalos

Juan Benito Gamarra y Dávalos was a scholar during the period of enlightenment in New Spain, modern day mexico. His thought was primarily concerned with approaching Christianity, particularly Spanish Catholicism with philosophical methodology of the time.

Life

Díaz Gamarra was born in Zamora, Michoacán on March 21, 1745. He entered the Jesuit college of San Ildefonso in Mexico City in 1756 and studied rhetoric, art, and canons. Afterwards, at the age of nineteen he entered the congregation of San Felipe Neri in 1764. He acted as an attorney at the congregation and traveled to Spain, Portugal, and Rome between 1767 to 1770. He managed to fulfill his role as attorney with the Iglesia del Oratorio de San Miguel el Grande a la de San Juan de Letrán. He also obtained his doctorate in canons at the University of Pisa and was granted membership at the Bolonia Academy of Sciences. At his return to Mexico in 1770 he acted as director and professor of philosophy at el Colegio de San Francisco de Sales, en San Miguel el Grande. He changed the curriculum to focus more on the best of Europe’s philosophers. He was dismissed from his intellectual positions of director, professor, and prefect of studies due to his possession of prohibited books. He died on November 1st, 1783.

Thought

Díaz Gamarra’s philosophy shows an anti- peripatetic scientific attitude and constitutes a good example of Hispanic enlightenment eclecticism, in which tries to conciliate ideas of compatible philosophical systems, referred by him as philosophical sects. He was directly influenced by Descartes, and Tomás Vicente Tosca, and was also indirectly influenced by Leibniz through Christian Wolff. The principle values of Díaz de Gamarra were indisociable of the illustrated spirit: common sense, rationality, tolerance, and utility for man. He is considered to be a precursor of Mexican independence.

Selected Works

Of Díaz de Gamarra’s principle works, one should note: Elements of modern philosophy (1774), Academias filosóficas (1774), Errors in human understanding (1781) and Memorial ajustado (1790).