Molina Bustos and Pérez Páez on Moral Philosophy and Archetypes in the Symbolic Cohesion of the Tale of Juan Matachin

Francisco Fabiany Molina Bustos and Jenny Alejandra Pérez Páez, both of the Social Sciences Observatory and Human Resources in Ibagué/ Edukivotos, have published Moral Philosophy and Archetypes in the Symbolic Cohesion of the Tale of Juan Matachin. Here is the abstract.

This paper examines the moralizing value of Rafael Pombo’s tale Juan Matachín within the Colombian cultural context, interpreting it as a narrative device for ethical and social regulation. Through an interdisciplinary approach combining literary analysis, moral philosophy, and political theory, the study explores the figure of the “anti-villain” as an ambivalent agent who, through fear, seeks to preserve the common good, social order, and harmony with nature. Drawing on Hobbes’s and Machiavelli’s reflections on fear as a foundation of order, the analysis shows how symbolic terror operates pedagogically to deter harmful behavior and reinforce communal norms. The tale is thus understood as more than children’s literature, functioning as a cultural archive that embeds collective values, mechanisms of social control, and an implicit ethic of ecological protection and community cohesion in the Colombian imaginary.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.