ABSTRACT
Simón Rodríguez (1769–1854) and Antonio José de Irisarri (1786–1868) were born as subjects of the Spanish monarchy and lived to write on the difficulties of nation building that came after independence. Rodríguez saw a need to dismantle the lingering social hierarchies of the colony, while Irisarri feared that too much egalitarianism would create chaos. Both thinkers shared a suspicion of their era’s passion for literacy as the key to building good citizens. This study traces those suspicions back to the works of Rousseau to reveal how different views on human intellectual capacity led Rodríguez and Irisarri to nearly opposite conclusions.
