SOURCE: Katra, William H. “Determinism, Idealism and the Web of History.” In Domingo F. Sarmiento: Public Writer (Between 1839 and 1852), pp. 143-66. Tempe: Center for Latin American Studies, 1985.

In the following essay, Katra examines Sarmiento's historical works, arguing that he embraces both philosophical idealism and materialism.

Sarmiento's treatment of historical issues, as seen in the previous chapter, with contradictions and overlapping philosophical tendencies is the critic's bugaboo. One approach would be to suppose that chaos reigns in his work because of the lack of methodological consistency. However, it is known that this writer was not above feigning madness, if that would bring him one step closer to the realization of his goals.

Sarmiento's verbal play about madness seems, at first glance, to be an insignificant passage in relation to the totality of his writing. However, further inspection reveals its role in relation to his complex psychology which ultimately—and...