The origins of philosophical activity in Colombia must be seen in the era of colonization. For the s. XVul belong XVII and Latin manuscripts preserved in seminaries, colleges and universities in Santa Fe, due to the diffusion of scholastic work, carried out by colonization. Jesuits, Dominicans and Franciscans, respectively, taught and cultivated the suarismo, Thomism and neckline. The unity of the common recurrence method and Aristotle in the most problematic issues do not unify the different orientation of these currents.

Metaphysics, dialectic, natural philosophy, ethics and natural theology, are the subject of speculation by a group of thinkers, such as Jose de Urbina, Jeronirno Mark, Matthew Mimbela, etc. (See bibl.). The interest in natural science and botany, coupled with a weakening of the religious spirit that permeated the previous thought, characterize the second half of the s. Eighteenth, which is implemented at the initiative of Viceroy Guirior, a new curriculum (1774) developed by Moreno y Escandon on new ethical concepts and, above all methodological. It appears, as elsewhere, the false conflict between faith and reason (you are right; REVELACtoN IV). Feijoo, Wolf and scientific findings are encouraging thinkers like Francisco Jose de Caldas and Jose Felix de Restrepo, misleading in that dispute. At the beginning of s. XII, in the years following independence, is broadcast on C, as in other Latin American countries (v. V ARGENTINA, MEXICO vi, etc..) Enthusiasm for positivism (v.) to A. Comte (v.), which, together with the utilitarianism of Bentham (v.), leads to a kind of positivist philosophy, as represented, p.