Bartolomé de Las Casas' culturalistic turn in his interpretation of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2019.3.36240

Palavras-chave:

Bartolomé de Las Casas, natural slavery, just war, human nature, culturalist interpretation, cultural argumentation.

Resumo

In order to protect the indigenous population of the Americas from slavery and war, Bartolomé de Las Casas (+1566) carries out a cultural turn in the understanding of what is considered “natural”. The idea that there are slaves by nature was explained in the colonial period by recourse to Aristotle and in view of the inhabitants of the West Indies.
A warlike subjugation of disobedient and rebellious slaves was therefore a “natural” affair - like the entire European expansion. Drawing on Aristotle’s understanding of ethos and Aquinas’ considerations of human beings’ natural knowledge of God, Las Casas initiates a culturalist interpretation of human nature. In this way, the indicators that are supposed to qualify the Indians as homunculi and slaves by nature are re-qualified as indicators of authentic humanity. The article reconstructs Las Casas’ innovative cultural argumentation.

 *** O giro cultural de Bartolomé de Las Casas na sua interpretação de Aristóteles e de Tomás de Aquino***

No intuito de proteger da escravidão e da guerra a população indígena das Americas, Bartolomé de Las Casas (+1566) leva a cabo uma virada cultural no entendimento daquilo que é considerado “natural”. A ideia de que existem escravos por natureza foi explicada, no período colonial, por recurso a Aristóteles e com vistas aos habitantes das Índias Ocidentais.
Uma sujeição pela guerra de escravos desobedientes e rebeldes era, portanto, um questão “natural” - assim como a expansão europeia por inteiro. Baseando-se no entendimento de ethos de Aristóteles e nas considerações de Tomás de Aquino sobre o conhecimento natural
de Deus que os seres humanos possuem, Las Casas inicia uma interpretação culturalista da natureza humana. Dessa maneira, os indicadores que supostamente qualificam os índios como homunculi e escravos por natureza são re-qualificados como indicadores de autenticaa
humanidade. O artigo reconstrói a inovadora argumentação cultural de Las Casas.

 

Palavras-chave: Bartolomé de Las Casas, escravidão natural, guerra justa, natureza humana, interpretação culturalista, argumentação cultural.

Downloads

Não há dados estatísticos.

Biografia do Autor

Michael Schulz, Universidade de Bonn, Bonn – Alemanha.

PhD and habilitation in Theology (LMU Munich). Director of the Department “Philosophy and Theory of Religions” and of the “Interdisciplinary Latin America Center”, Rheinische Friedrich-
Wilhelms-University, Bonn / Germany. https://www.ptr.uni-bonn.

Referências

Andújar, E. Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda: Moral Theology versus Political Philosophy. In: White, K. (ed.). Hispanic Philosophy in the Age of Discovery. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1997. p. 69-87. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1760q.8

Aristoteles. Rhetorik. Griechisch / Deutsch, ed. Gernot Krapinger. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2018.

Aristotle. Metaphysics, trans. and ed. Hugh Lawson-Tancred. London: Pinguin Group, 2004.

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, trans. and ed. BARTLETT, R. C. / COLLINS, S.D. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226026763.001.0001

Aristotle. On Memory and Reminiscence, trans. Beare, J. I. Adelaide: University of Adelaide, 2015.

Aristotle. Physics, trans. Reeve, C. D. C. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 2018.

Aristotle. Politics, trans. Barker, E. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

da Silva, G. Am Anfang war das Opfer. René Girard aus afroindiolateinamerikanischer Perspektive. Münster-Hamburg-London: Lit, 2001.

Delgado, M. Introductions. In: Bartolomé de Las Casas. Werkauswahl, vol. 2: Historische und ethnographische Schriften, ed. Delgado, M. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1995. p. 311, 331-340, 380-381, 388-389, 412-414.

Gutiérrez, G. Dios o el oro en las Indias: Siglo XVI. Lima: Instituto Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1989.

Gutiérrez, G. Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ, trans. Robert R. Barr. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/100.2.617 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/100.2.617

Hanke, L. Aristotle and the American Indians. A Study in Race Prejudice in the Modern World. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company 1959. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1891569

Las Casas, B. de. Apología, ed. Ángel Losada. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1975.

Las Casas, B., de. Apologética historia sumaria [1566]. Colombia: Fundación El Libro Total https://www.ellibrototal.com/ltotal/?t=1&d=4072_4167_1_1_4072.

Las Casas, B. de. De unico vocationis modo omnium gentium ad veram religionem, ed. Millares Carlo, A. México: FCE, 1942.

Las Casas, B., de. Argumentum Apologiae adversus Genesium Sepulvedam theologum cordubensem. In: Obras Completas, vol. 9, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1988.

Las Casas, B., de. Werkauswahl, vol. 1: Missionstheologische Schriften. ed. Delgado, M. Paderborn: Schöningh 1994.

Las Casas, B., de. Werkauswahl, vol. 2: Historische und ethnographische Schriften, ed. Delgado, M. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1995.

Pino-Díaz, F. “Estudio introductivo”. In: Josef de Acosta. Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas 2008, p. XVII-LVI.

Rech, B. Bartolomé de Las Casas und Aristoteles. Jahrbuch für Geschichte Lateinamerikas, [S. l.], v. 22, p. 39-68, 1985. https://doi.org/10.7767/jbla.1985.22.1.39 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7767/jbla.1985.22.1.39

Rech, B. “Las Casas und das Alte Testament”. In: Jahrbuch für Geschichte Lateinamerikas, [S. l.], v. 18 p. 1–30, 1981. https://doi.org/10.7788/jbla-1981-0104 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7788/jbla-1981-0104

Salatowsky, S. De Anima. Die Rezeption der aristotelischen Psychologie im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: B.R. Grüner, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1075/bsp.43 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1524/9783050085432.237

Schäfer, C. “Juan Ginés De Sepúlveda und die Politische Aristotelesrezeption im Zeitalter der Conquista”. In: Vivarium, 40 (2002), p. 242–271. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853402320901830 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853402320901830

Sepúlveda, J. G., de. Democrates Secundus / Zweiter Demokrates, trans. and ed. by Christian Schäfer. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: frommann-holzboog, 2018.

Sepúlveda, J.G., de. „Antworten von Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda“. In: Bartolomé de Las Casas: Werkauswahl, vol. 1: Missionstheologische Schriften, ed. Delgado. M. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1994, p. 373-389. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1760q.8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1760q.8

Sievernich, M. “Missionstheologien ‚nach‘ Las Casas”. In Bartolomé de Las Casas: Werkauswahl, vol. 1: Missionstheologische Schriften, ed. Delgado, M. Paderborn: Schöningh 1994, p. 59-85.

Downloads

Publicado

2019-12-31

Como Citar

Schulz, M. (2019). Bartolomé de Las Casas’ culturalistic turn in his interpretation of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. Veritas (Porto Alegre), 64(3), e36240. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2019.3.36240