En el germen del liberalismo español: la filosofía neoestoica en Los Desastres de la Guerra de

Abstract

The selfsame neostoicism that at the beginning of the seventeenth century helped –as Domínguez Manzano states– “to build an autonomous moral system, justifiable in itself and independent from external doctrinary impositions, but at the same time compatible with the main Christian dogmas”, became the basis of Goya’s personal and collective philosophical proposal at a time when Europe, and Spain in particular, had once again been plunged into war. In response, there arose a need to assert natural law, individualism and reason –elements integral to the human condition– in the face of rampant barbarism and the prevailing absolutist dogma. In offering this stoic solution, Goya is not turning anachronistically to a past moral but to an emphatically modern one that would become an essential source for the development of liberal ideology, which would reach its peak with the disastrous consequences of the Napoleonic wars. This paper analyses The Disasters of War from print 26 No se puede Mirar (One cannot look) through to 39 Grande Hazaña con muertos (A heroic feat! With dead men!).