The development of positivism and science between 1885-1915 in the history of philosophy in Peru

In our research we will argue, unlike Augusto Salazar Bondy, that positivism was not the predominant philosophical current in the Peruvian academic community during the years 1885 and 1915. In the history of Peruvian philosophy, we consider that the period between 1885 and 1915 was a period of rejection to the ideas of positivism and the scientific advances in biology and psychology, and that an attempt was made to reconcile the ideas of positivism and the scientific advances with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. In fact, the dominant philosophical current at that time was Aristotelian Thomism in the interpretation of Jaime Balmes. In synthesis, we can affirm that Aristotelian Thomism has been the philosophical current that has determined the philosophical and scientific reflection in Peru since the beginning of the Colonial times. That is to say, Thomism has been the ontological basis in which philosophical and scientific ideas have been developed in Peru.