Revista Nacional was a quarterly journal published by the Academia Nacional de Letras del Uruguay [National Academy of Letters]. This article refers to one of the most important figures in the intellectual history of the River Plate [region], Pedro Figari. After an introduction by the historian Arturo Ardao, the French writer Désiré Roustan presented a philosophical profile of the Uruguayan writer and artist within the context of universal thought in the early twentieth century.

Arturo Ardao (1912−2003) was a leading historian of Uruguayan and Latin American philosophy and had written several works on the philosophy of Pedro Figari (1861−1938). Désiré Roustan (1873−1941), the French scholar of the Bergsonian [after philosopher Henri Bergson] doctrine, met Figari on a conference tour throughout Latin America, becoming one of the most lucid analysts of his philosophy on the “biological conceptions,” the “aesthetic emotions” theory, and the “pantheistic trends” projected toward Figari’s landscape work. Roustan’s admiration of the artwork and the character of Figari led him to write the prologue “Essai de philosophie biologique” for the French edition of Arte, estética, ideal published in Paris in 1926, an extensive philosophical work on the Uruguayan philosopher that was published in Montevideo in 1912. Art, science, aesthetics, conscience/knowledge, religion, freedom, progress, evolution, identity, history, and industrialization, among other issues, crystallized a critical doctrine on Western civilization for Figari. Roustan analyzes each of them separately, delving especially into science and knowledge because of the critical aspects that Figari contributes regarding the relationship of man to nature, therefore creating innovative approaches to intelligence and applying these to the scientific field. Roustan is interested even by what he calls Figari’s “temperamental pantheism,” discovering a tendency and a form of sensibility pointing toward the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. In fact, Figari adds to the affirmation of rigorous determinism a theory of freedom stating, “In this world where nothing is produced that is not to be produced, I have the right to call myself free, because I am not only determined, I am allotted from what has been determined, I am caused, with the same title as the rest of the universe, I count for something” (Arte, estética, ideal). The probable relationship between the metaphysics of Figari and Baruch Spinoza (1632−1677) can only be referring to a “temperamental pantheism,” since there are many other aspects of it that differ from the ideas of the Flemish philosopher of Portuguese descent [Spinoza]. [For further reading, please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the following texts by the Uruguayan polymath: “Las exposiciones Cuneo y Michelena [Un juicio de Pedro Figari]” (doc. no. 1233819), “Industrialización de la América Latina, Autonomía y Regionalismo: Carta abierta dirigida por el Dr. Pedro Figari al Excmo. Señor Presidente de la República Oriental del Uruguay” (doc. no. 1181222), “Un poco de crítica regional” (doc. no. 1258164), “América Autónoma: no basta instruir, hay que enseñar a trabajar” (doc. no. 795325), “Arte, técnica, crítica. Conferencia bajo el patrocinio de la Asociación Politécnica del Uruguay” (doc. no. 1263840), “Autonomía Regional” (doc. no. 1254337), and “Una carta de Pedro Figari” (doc. no. 1197040)].