Abstract

This paper discusses the application of the historiographical category translatio studiorum to the compilation of American philosophical and theological production designated as scholastica americana, and substantiates this expression – by highlighting specific content that puts it in a historiographical category. The article analyses some characteristics of this production in the colonial period, establishing its geographical, chronological, thematic and institutional delimitation. The characterization of the production is justified for the following periods: 1. Scholastic; 2. Eclectic pre-Enlightenment; and 3. Enlightenment.Walter Redmond’s thesis of the double translatio of logic is also discussed – a thesis equally applicable to other philosophical disciplines. The epistemological and methodological justification of the historiographical category scholastica colonialis americana includes the following topics: an unusual process within the general category; its problematic context; the consideration of the American philosophical ‘tradition’ as translatio americana; and its connexion with the scholastica americana as being understood in recent historiography.