THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY OF JUAN DONOSO CORTES

Donoso Cortes, always recognized as a major Catholic political thinker, has not been studied critically as a philosopher of history. Many commentators (de Armas, Valverde, Suarez, Galindo Hererro, Westemeyer) celebrate his defense of Catholicism against atheistic socialism; others take him seriously but do not discuss the concept of history (Wilhelmsen, Schmitt, Worden), and still others reach questionable conclusions based on faulty theoretical consideration (Abelenda, Graham). The present study considers Donoso's writing from 1847 to 1853 as a body of thought which theoretically develops a "philosophy of history." It investigates this concept by focussing on Donoso's development of the "two societies," Catholic and Philosophical. Because of the similarity of these concepts to Augustine's two cities, and because Donoso calls Augustine the first universal historian, comparison is often made to Augustine's thought. Catholic Society, says Donoso, "contains the truth without any mixture of evil," and Philosophical Society "contains evil without any mixture of good." But the theoretical dimension of the two societies is to be distinguished from their historical existence, where they are imperfectly manifested in time and space. Nonetheless, the struggle between the two societies constitutes the drama of history. Thus the present study concentrates on the origin of the two societies; their membership; their existence in principle and in singular events; the structure of their existence within history; and their eschatological goal.;In Philosophical Society man is totally incapable of knowing the truth, while in Catholic Society man has access to the total truth of Catholic dogma. One must account, then, for the knowledge which man had after the Fall but before the advent of Catholic truth in the Incarnation. Donoso does this with the concept of tradition, which preserves the truths revealed in Eden but which can be apprehended only imperfectly by any society or individual. Religion, society, and the family are the conduits of tradition, but reach their fullness only in Catholic Society.;Donoso's development of the concept of history begins with its definition as the "biography of the human race," and is then developed as the interaction of human liberty and Divine Providence, reflecting Donoso's reliance on Vico. Donoso considers himself the first true "philosopher of history" because he recognizes the relationship of the laws of history, derived from Catholic dogma, to singular events. These laws, beyond the control of autonomous man, are those of "unity and variety," "universal order," "hierarchy," "perfection and progress," "the thermometer," and "love.".;Donoso's consideration of singular events in the light of universal principles reflects the problem endemic to all "philosophies of history." In order to further distinguish the two societies, then, we distinguish "typical history," the history of the societies in the realm of principle, from "singular history," which only imperfectly reflects typical history, and is not bound by it. Thus, while Donoso sees an eventual conflagration between the two societies at the end of typical history, singular societies within history can escape catastrophe if they return to the "Catholic ways.".