Concepts and political language in a "revolutionary intellectual" in times of Independence: Antonio José de Irisarri (1809-1818)

Abstract

This article analyzes, from the point of view of an intellectual history and history of ideas, the emergence of a “revolutionary intellectual”, José Antonio Irisarri, during the Chilean independence process at the beginning of the 19th century. Irisarri is studied as a representative thinker within a long list of American intellectuals who helped with their ideas to liberate their respective countries from Spanish rule. The study focuses on political ideas, concepts and language used by Irisarri, as well as the emergence of an incipient public space for deliberation, such as the newspaper of the time. In spaces like those, this new intellectual, pragmatic in the expression of his ideas, is seen in sociopolitical contexts of confrontation between political actors of an era that transits from monarchism to liberalism.