Rizal and the Foundations of Filipino Scholarship

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing key persons, works, institutions, dates, and concepts from the lecture on José Rizal and early Filipino scholarship.

City where José Rizal lived, studied, and completed the publication of Noli Me Tangere.

Berlin (1887)

Unfinished international learned society that Rizal envisioned to encourage Philippine studies.

Association Internationale des Philippinistes

First scholarly congress on the Philippines proposed by Rizal for the year 1889.

1889 Philippine Studies Congress

Short-lived state university founded by the Malolos Republic in 1898.

Universidad Literaria de Filipinas

Ground-breaking folklore book authored by Isabelo de los Reyes.

El Folk-Lore Filipino (1889)

Uprising and execution that inspired a generation of Filipino reformists and scholars.

Cavite Mutiny & Gomburza (1872)

Austrian friend, mentor, and academic collaborator of Rizal.

Ferdinand Blumentritt

German ethnologist whom Rizal hoped—but failed—to meet in Berlin.

Adolf Bastian

Patron who financed the printing of Noli Me Tangere in Berlin.

Maximo Viola

First Filipino head of the Manila Laboratory and hailed as the most outstanding Filipino scientist of the 19th century.

Anacleto del Rosario

Antonio de Morga’s 1609 history that Rizal annotated in 1890.

Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (annotated)

First arithmetic textbook written by a native Filipino author.

Aritmetica

Economic treatise by Gregorio Sancianco calling for Philippine development.

Progreso de Filipinas (1881)

Pedro Paterno’s study theorizing a pre-Hispanic indigenous political system.

El Barangay

Paterno’s 1890s work focusing on Filipino family life and customs.

La Familia Tagalog

Latin maxim—“Know thyself”—used by Rizal to stress national self-knowledge.

Nosce te ipsum

Rizal’s affectionate description of Germany because of its scholarly environment.

"My scientific mother country"

Discipline to which Rizal made contributions but is seldom credited in Philippine history.

Anthropology (Rizal’s interest)

Cohort of Filipino intellectuals who established the foundations of modern Filipino scholarship.

Generation of 1872

First Filipino-run scholarly journal, central organ of reformist discourse from 1889–1895.

La Solidaridad

German city where Rizal pursued advanced studies in ophthalmology.

Heidelberg

French institutions where Trinidad Pardo de Tavera studied medicine and Oriental languages.

Sorbonne & École des Langues Orientales

Scholarly umbrella organization proposed by Isabelo de los Reyes to unite Filipino learned societies.

Aurora Nueva

Educational reform advocated by the Malolos Republic’s constitution.

Free & compulsory primary education

Scholar who wrote extensively on Malay identity and Philippine folklore.

Isabelo de los Reyes

Pedro Paterno’s essay exploring the character of the Tagalog individual.

El Individuo Tagalog (1893)

Filipino lawyer-historian noted for authoring practical manuals on government.

Manuel Artigas

Educator who pioneered access to higher education for Filipino women.

Rosa Sevilla

Blumentritt’s 1890s discussion introducing the work of the future “Father of Modern Anthropology.”

Franz Boas article in La Solidaridad

Practice Rizal urged his compatriots to adopt in order to build a national intellectual tradition.

Quoting Filipino scholars

Self-deprecating phrase describing Rizal’s wide-ranging but non-specialist scholarly pursuits.

Promiscuous amateur

Label Blumentritt applied to Rizal and Tavera as Spain’s only true experts on Malay identity.

"Malayists"

Area, alongside medicine, where Pardo de Tavera produced influential studies.

Linguistics (Tavera’s field)

Discipline that had not yet been formally institutionalized at the University of the Philippines before 1915.

Sociology at UP (pre-1915)

Historiographical term critiqued for falsely dividing Spanish and American intellectual eras in the Philippines.

Radical break

German anthropologist and mentor of Franz Boas, admired by Rizal’s circle.

Rudolf Virchow

Rizal’s proposed initiative to translate key texts and thus cultivate Philippine anthropology.

Translation program for anthropology

Successor cohort to Rizal’s generation, active during and after the Philippine Revolution.

Generation of 1898

Law school that first opened its doors to Filipino women in 1899.

Escuela de Derecho (1899)

1905 journal covering Philippine history, sociology, and economics.

Revista Historica de Filipinas

Jurist who introduced sociology into the Philippine law curriculum.

Felipe Calderon

Mindanao town where Rizal lived in banishment before his execution.

Dapitan exile (1892-1896)

Intellectual attitude in Europe that Rizal admired and wanted to cultivate among Filipinos.

Scientific doubt & discussion

Austin Coates’s image of Rizal in Berlin, highlighting his precise scholarly focus.

“The marksman” metaphor

Process by which Rizal’s generation absorbed and adapted European learning to Filipino needs.

Appropriating Western knowledge

Modern, non-sectarian educational institution envisioned by Rizal for Filipino youth.

Secular scientific boarding school

Dual choice described by historian Eric Hobsbawm for colonized nations confronting modernity.

Resist or adapt Western progress

Early scientific research facility in Manila headed by Anacleto del Rosario.

Manila Laboratory

Pioneering anthropologist whose ideas reached Filipino readers through La Solidaridad.

Franz Boas

First Philippine Republic (1898–1901) that promoted secular education and founded a national university.

Malolos Republic