The Spanish "Neo-Catholicism" of the 19th Century as a Phenomenon of "Peripheral Conservatism"

Identificator

EDN: PNZYYJ ; УДК: 141.412+172.1

Authors

Vasilenko Yuri Vladimirovich, PhD in Philosophy, associate professor of the Department of Humanities, National Research University "Higher School of Economics-Perm". Russia, Perm. ORCID: 0000-0001-7865-6497. E-mail: yuvasilenko@hse.ru ; Vnutskikh Alexander Yuryevich, Doctor of Philosophy, Head of «Philosophy and Low» Department, Perm National Research Polytechnic University. Russia, Perm. ORCID: 0000-0003-4162-1033. E-mail: ayuvnutskih@pstu.ru

Journal

HERALD OF VYATKA STATE UNIVERSITY №3 (157), 2025

Section

PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES

Pages

30-38

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the key themes in the development of the socio-political philosophy of Spanish conservatism in the second half of the 19th century. Its relevance is determined by the fact that significant parallels can be drawn between Spanish and Russian conservatism, related to the primacy of the traditionalist core (the religious-monarchical component) and the "catch-up" model of the development of industrial society. In particular, the article analyzes the logic of the conservative – and, more narrowly, traditionalist – negative reaction to the criticism levelled by the "innovators" against early modern Spanish science and the significance of its contribution to world science (the natural sciences and the humanities). The main opponent of the "innovators" is the outstanding Spanish "neo-Catholic" M. Menéndez y Pelayo, who in his three-volume work Spanish Science sought to refute the criticism of the "innovators" and to prove the greatness of Spanish science, thereby contributing to the creation of new conceptions of the Spanish scientific canon. The article reveals the philosophical specificity of "neo-Catholicism", within whose framework there occurred a dialectical synthesis of Catholic Tradition and liberal-bourgeois Innovation that was already perceived as a norm by Spanish conservatives in the 20th century, as well as its contribution to the formation of Spanish conservatism as "peripheral". On the basis of the material presented, the essential features and patterns in the development of Spanish conservatism as "peripheral" are identified: thus, its "peripherality" begins to manifest itself during the Enlightenment, is associated with the imitation of classical (British and French) models and gradually – as the socio-economic lag behind the world centres increases – leads to the exaltation of a local nationalism that discredits itself under the conditions of the military dictatorships that sought to overcome this lag.

Keywords

peripheral conservatism conservative reaction innovation traditionalism "neo-Catholicism" Spanish nationalism science Menéndez y Pelayo

Recieved

04.03.2025

Published

16.07.2026

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