Abstract

A common debate in Philippine historiography is whether or not Jose Rizal was a "radical" who supported the Philippine Revolution or a moderate liberal who did not. Much of this debate assumes that being liberal in late nineteenth-century Philippines made one a moderate. This paper argues that Rizal's liberalism was radical and revolutionary within his historical context--a period after liberal revolutions in Europe and the Americas but prior to the socialist revolutions of the twentieth century. The talk outlines the broad contours of Rizal's radical liberalism, then proceeds to a brief reading of the Noli me Tangere as a radical, liberal text.

About the speaker

Lisandro E. Claudio is Assistant Professor at the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Liberalism and the Postcolony: Thinking the State in 20th-Century Philippines (NUS, Kyoto and Ateneo Press.