The formation of conscience in the New World based on the work of Friar Diego Valadés

• Grant number: 15/02448-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2015
• End date: June 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: Rafael Ruiz Gonzalez
• Grantee: Dayanne Luz das Neves
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of our research is to read and analyze the work, Retórica Cristiana, by Friar Diego Valadés (1533-1582). Published in 1579 Perugia - Italy, it is the first work written by a mestizo to be published in Europe. Valadés spent most of his life in America on his evangelizing mission, thus contributing, based on his work, to a peaceful method of evangelization for the new world. Valadés tried to show Europeans how to act towards the natives, highlighting these natives' great intellectual and moral capacity. The central issue I sought to analyze was the importance given by the author to the natives' free will and conscience such that it was possible to internalize and assimilate the standards and practices of the virtues. It was, therefore, a work that sought to contribute to the formation of the natives' individual consciousness, which would allow them to exercise practical reason. Thus, from the knowledge and practice of the virtue of prudence, the work would allow the individual to fairly measure law and freedom, honesty and dishonesty, and to become the judge of his or her own actions. (AU)