This article examines the contributions of the Puerto Rican philosopher Eugenio María de Hostos to educational philosophy and morality in Latin America but who is little known in Brazil. Hostos, who was one of the leading philosophers and educators of the nineteenth century proposed an innovative educational theory for those countries. His educational philosophy embraced the conscious rationale for erecting a new moral and intellectual world that would serve the educational foundation that was urgently required. For him, education was both a right and a duty for men and women because, as he states, reason has no sex. The thinker emphasized how crucial was to educate the reason in the educational process. Its purpose was to bring into being free and independent individuals, capable of their own judgment. Even more, concerned by the dichotomy civilization/barbarism he presented an ethical thinking that culminated in a moral society where "the duty of duties" was the keystone.
Hostos; educational philosophy; ethics; Latin America history
