Did scientific and political Kantian reason influence in the early formation of Costa Rican Republic: the case of science as political tool

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, science in Costa Rica was in its early stages of development. The Republic of Costa Rica was founded in 1848, influenced by new political, economic, and cultural ideas introduced through the education of the sons of the wealthiest men, who were sent to Europe to absorb the ideas of progress. However, the only university was closed in 1889, and education took refuge mostly in high schools. In this context, a series of anticlerical laws were enacted by a generation of young liberal politicians to mitigate the influence of the Church in State decisions. The new countries of America required a philosophical foundation to organize as States. However, in the case of Costa Rica, as will be suggested in this paper, it presents a good example of the use of science as a political tool in the inception of the new States, particularly in the way that the inheritance of colonization reshaped the ideas of national identity. In other words, it will be suggested that science became the instrument of this civilizing project in accordance with the views of progress imported from Europe. By 1910, an indigenous concept of science found its major expression in the works of a geographer named Pedro Nolasco. He supposedly predicted, based on astronomical calculations, a series of earthquakes that hit the central valley of Costa Rica between April and May of that year. This helped the Catholic Church maintain some political strength because this geographer was held in high esteem by the majority of Costa Rican citizens. This posed a problem for the government of Costa Rica, which decided to bring a European geographer to educate people in terms of science and reason to erase any source of superstition in the population. However, the idea to educate people via science and reason was not necessarily a noble end in the Costa Rican political agenda. Rather, it was an instrumentalization of knowledge to preserve a political project. The question that needs to be addressed is whether the justification of the instrumentalization of science according to a political agenda was at the root of Latin American philosophical history. This justification can be traced back to colonial ideas endorsed at some point by Kant, such as those expressed in "Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim" (1784), where he pointed out that "our" part of the world would probably eventually give laws to all other parts of the world". Hence, the idea of a European civilizing project in Latin America was not intended to be enlightening, and its consequences remain today. This paper will explore the Kantian colonial political views and the role played in the early formation of Latin American States, particularly the case of Costa Rica, through the use of science as a political tool justified by European views, which curtailed any homegrown scientific development in the following years.