Mexican Freethinkers

From Philosopedia

Mexican Freethinkers, Humanists, Rationalists, Positivists

Freethinkers

For up-to-date information about unbelievers in any state or country, see the following:

• Agnostics http://www.holysmoke.org
• American Atheists http://www.atheists.org
• American Humanist Association http://www.humanist.net
• American Philosophy Association http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/
• Atheist Alliance http://www.atheistalliance.org
• Bertrand Russell Society http://www.lehman.edu/deanhum/philosophy/BRSQ/BRS
• Canadian Humanist Association http://www.hac.humanists.net
• Council for Secular Humanism http://www.secularhumanism.org
• Ethical Culture: http://www.aeu.org
• Freedom from Religion: http://www.ffrf.org
• Freethought Directory http://www.atheistalliance.org
• Gay and Lesbian Atheists and Humanists: http://www.galah.org/
• Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association: http://www.galha.org
• Hume Society http://www.humesociety.org/
• Institute for Humanist Studies http://humaniststudies.org/
• International Humanist and Ethical Union http://www.iheu.org
• National Secular Society http://www.secularism.org.uk
• Rationalist Press Association http://www.rationalist.org/uk
• Unitarian Universalist Association http://www.uua.org/main.html
• Voltaire Society http://www.whitman.edu/VSA/index.html

Ethical Rationalists

The Mexican Ethical Rationalist Association (Asociacion Mexicana Ética Racionalista, Apdo 19-546, Mexico City DF 0-3900, Mexico) is a leading ethical rationalist group in Central America and publishes a quarterly, Razonamientos.

It is an associate member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. (See entries for José Luis María Mora and Ignacio Ramirez.)

Positivists

Gabino Barreda (1818–1881) introduced a Comtean variety of positivism in Mexico. Upon being put in charge of educational reform in 1867, he introduced changes that reflected his antischolastic views.

Later, during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, Justo Sierra led the intellectual life and was more inspired by Mill and Spencer than by Comte. Upon being named minister of education, Sierra reestablished the National University, which had been abolished earlier as a result of a church-state controversy. Like most positivists, Sierra based his anticlericalism on what he regarded as the religious superstition. In 1974, Leopoldo Zea wrote Positivism in Mexico.

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