Works by Félix Varela III

The philosophy of Félix Varela is part of the first currents of Cuban philosophical thought, which also included José Agustín Caballero and José de la Luz y Caballero.
From the end of the 18th century until the second decade of the 19th century, the philosophical reformism of José Agustín Caballero prevailed in Cuba, which was in correspondence with the political reformism prevailing at that time. Unlike the preceding purely scholastic stage, this one was characterized by an increased interest in philosophical themes, which, without breaking away from scholasticism, opened the doors to modern thought with the criticism of this type of thought.
Varela’s early works already reveal the upward projection of his thought. In his first work Instituciones de Filosofía Ecléctica, published between 1812 and 1814, the imprint of the teachings of his teacher, Father José Agustín Caballero, can be seen. In Elenco Filosófico ( 1816), the influence of French empiricism of the 18th century can be perceived. The Lessons in Philosophy and Philosophical Miscellany correspond to a later period and show the maturity and originality of Varela’s thought.
The Lessons were long considered one of the best philosophical works written in Spanish during this period. But the greatness of the lessons was surpassed in maturity and political depth by his Letters to Elpidio (collected in this third volume), of a very different fate and significance to his previous works. This was the work that marked the full maturity of Félix Varela’s social-political thought.
Its publication began in 1835, the year in which the first volume, which dealt with impiety, was published. The second volume, dedicated to superstition, was published in 1838, and the third, which was to refer to fanaticism, never saw the light of day, because the indifference first and the ill will later, with which the two initial volumes of the work were received, dissuaded Varela from submitting the last one to the printer.
In this third volume of Varela’s works we also publish the letters between the two great thinkers who opened the door to modern Cuban thought: José de la Luz y Caballero and Félix Varela.