José Pablo Feinmann on Juan Bautista Alberdi

This is Chapter 3 of the third season of Argentine philosopher José Pablo Feinmann's public TV series Filosofía aquí y ahora, "T3 CAP 3. Alberdi y la Revolucion de mayo," Encuentro n/d YouTube 02/07/2013.

Here he discusses the great Argentine historian, diplomat and political theorist Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810–1884)

The Encuentro summary notes, "Las ideas de Alberdi representan las bases del primer liberalismo argentino." ("Alberdi's ideas represent the basis of the first Argentine liberalism.")

In the lecture, Feinmann notes, "Alberdi mira a la Revolución de Mayo desde el punto de vista es el de las provincias." ("Alberdi sees the Revolución de Mayo from the point of view which is that of the provinces.") The contrast between federalism, which Alberdi defended, and centralism representing the domination of Buenos Aires over the other provinces is a major theme in 19th century Argentine history.

"Alberdi representa a la línea del liberalismo integracionista," says Feinmann. ("Alberdi represents the line of integrationist liberalism.") Integrationist liberalism is Feinmann's term for Alberdi's federalist perspective, as contrasted with the centralist "liberalismo excluyente" (exclusionary liberalism).


Alberdi also did important work on the laws of war and war crimes.

José Pablo Feinmann on Mariano Moreno and the Revolución de Mayo of Argentina

This is Chapter 2 of the third season of Argentine philosopher José Pablo Feinmann's public TV series Filosofía aquí y ahora, "T3 CAP 2. El Plan de Operaciones," Encuentro n/d YouTube 02/07/2013, which continues with his discussion of the Revolucion de Mayo of 1810 and its chief leader Mariano Moreno.

The Plan of Operations (Plan revolucionario de operaciones) was a document by Moreno, laying out a plan for constructing an indepedent Argentina, heavily influenced by French Jacobin theorists Robespierre and Saint-Just.

Feinmann argues that Moreno's Plan didn't have a people, a public, that was large enough and so constituted that it could act as a genuine revolutionary subject in the sense that the French Revolution had experienced.

Not to put to fine a point on it, Buenos Aires, where Moreno and his fellow revolutionary leaders Cornelio de Saavedra and Manuel Belgrano, was a small city in a backwater section of the Spanish Empire.

What we now know as Argentina was the largest part of the Virreinato [Viceroyalty] del Río de la Plata, established by Spain in 1776. This graphic from Wikimedia Commons shows the territory it included:

The Revolución de Mayo ended the rule of the last Viceroy of Spain, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, though Francisco Javier de Elío formerly held the title 1810-12, though he had no effective control in most of his nominal territory. The Revolución de Mayo established the independence of Buenos Aires.

The Virreinato del Río de la Plata was formerly abolished in the Congress of Tucumán of 1816, which declared the independence of the Provincias Unidas [United Provinces] del Río de la Plata

Feinmann here groups participants in a revolution into three groups: enthusiasts, enemies and spectators and discusses Moreno's approach to each.

José Pablo Feinmann on the Enlightenment and the Argentinian Revolution of Independence

This is Chapter 1 of the third season of Argentine philosopher José Pablo Feinmann's public TV series Filosofía aquí y ahora, "T3 CAP 1. Iluminismo y Revolucion de Mayo"; Encuentro n/d YouTube 02/07/2013

href="http://www.encuentro.gov.ar/sitios/encuentro/programas/ver?rec_id=50216">Encuentro n/d Filosofía y Praxis YouTube 02/05/2013:

French Revolution made by the masses led by the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class. Liberty, eqaulity, fraternity.

As Feinmann explains, the Revolucion de Mayo was not made by the masses in anything like the same sense. Not a "popular revolution". It was a revolution made by a small group who took advantage of the strange situation presented by the unusual conditions of the French control of Spain under Napoleon.

He stresses the extent to which Enlightenment thought shaped that of Mariano Moreno. Moreno was a Jacobin in his philosophical orientation, but without the sanguinary implications that label carries in its French context.