Me irrita la asepsia que ostentan algunos estudiosos, derivada del temor a asumir riesgos intelectuales. Contra esta clase de mediocridad expongo el legado de una impregnación estético-vital, que, en mi modesta opinión, constituye el modo sincero de revelar la calidad de un espíritu. Se notará un efecto de vasos comunicantes. Por ello, dispuesto a tratar sobre la personalidad de don Pío Baroja, lo haré compartiendo su profunda emoción de ser, cota que excede el alcance de lo anecdótico, de lo chismográfico (...) y hasta de la mera erudición. (shrink)

Rastreamos doctrinas unamunianas del Otro en el Edipo, rey de Sólbeles y en el Sofista platónico, edípico hacia el «padre» Parménides al filosofar sobre lo otro (té `ttapov). Examinamos el platonismo del Otro en Del setííimie,zío trágico, en las acotaciones de Unamuno a la tragedia de Sófocles y en su propio drama El Otro.

Una de las aportaciones más importantes de la obra de Ortega se encuentra en su teoría y práctica de la perspectiva. Independientemente de su filiación nietzscheana, el artículo se plantea una posible segunda inspiración en Renan, autor que Ortega conocía bien en el momento de sus primeros trabajos. Para ello, se realiza una comparación de la posición de Renan ante el pensador Lamennais y la de Ortega ante Pío Baroja, donde se aprecian coincidencias no sólo en la interpretación de los (...) personajes, sino en la forma de concebir la práctica intelectual que subyace en sendos trabajos. (shrink)

Els gitanos són una minoria present fa sis segles a Europa. Avui vindiquen el seu lloc en la construcció d’una Europa plural, respectuosa amb les seves minories i sense discriminacions per raó d’ètnia i origen. En la construcció de l’Europa del segle xxi s’ha de comptar amb ells. Tenen una cultura discernible, versàtil, adaptatícia, resistent i resilient. Són una cultura heterogènia, amb una identitat ètnica compartida i difusa. Avui les institucions la reconeixen però, sovint, socialment i política, és qüestionada o (...) rebutjada. La superació dels conflictes culturals existents, només serà possible amb el diàleg intercultural, l’exercici del respecte mutu i una gran paciència històrica.The Roma are a minority present for six centuries in Europe. Today we claim its place in building a pluralistic Europe, respectful of its minorities, without discrimination on grounds of ethnicity and origin. In the construction of the XXI century Europe has to have them. They have a discernible culture, versatile, adaptable and resilient. They are a diverse culture with a shared ethnic identity and diffuse. Today the institutions recognized it but, often, socially and politically, is questioned or denied. Overcome existing cultural conflict is only possible to intercultural dialogue, mutual exercise and great historical patience. (shrink)

There are surely some dozens of young Spaniards who, submerged in the obscure depths of provincial existence, live in a perpetual and tacit irritation with the atmosphere around them. I can almost see them, in the corner of some social hall, silent, with embittered gaze and hostile mien, withdrawn into themselves like little tigers awaiting the moment for their vengeful, predatory leap. That corner and that frayed plush divan are like the solitary crag where the shipwrecked of monotony, of utter (...) banality, of the abjection and emptiness of Spanish life, hope for better times. Not far away, playing their card games, making their petty politics, plotting their minimal business ventures, are the "life forces" of the community, these men who contrive this ominous moment in our national life. (shrink)

In the background to Ortega’s controversial relationship with some of the most prominent members of the Spanish Generation of '98, there is a gradual shift in Ortega’s original idealism towards a pragmatism. This move takes him from an original confrontation with Maeztu and Baroja to a later critical —even cryptic— acceptance of several of their philosophical theses. The 50th anniversary of the deaths of Ortega and Baroja is a good opporunity to begin an exploration of the question.

I reconstruct the discussion originated with publication of A Theory of Justice in 1971. I argue that criticism and counter-criticism has modified in a remarkable way the original points of view with which both alignments joined the discussion.

This work tries to give the possible most suitable vision of the Generation of 98 regarding the purposes and interest of the main authors: Azorín, Pío Baroja, Miguel Unamuno, Antonio Machado and José Ortega y Gasset.

The concept of vital force – the immanent energy that promotes the processes of life in the body and in nature – has proved a source of endless fascination and controversy. Indeed, the question of what vitalizes the body has haunted humanity since antiquity, and became even more pressing during the Scientific Revolution and beyond. Examining the complexities and theories about vital force in Spanish modernity, Nicolás Fernández-Medina's Life Embodied offers a novel and provocative assessment of the question of bodily (...) life in Spain. Starting with Juan de Cabriada's landmark Carta filosófica, médico-chymica of 1687 and ending with Ramón Gómez de la Serna's avant-gardism of the 1910s, Fernández-Medina incorporates discussions of anatomy, philosophy, science, critical theory, history of medicine, and literary studies to argue that concepts of vital force served as powerful vehicles to interrogate the possibilities and limits of corporeality. Paying close attention to how the body's capabilities were conceived and strategically woven into critiques of modernity, Fernández-Medina engages the work of Miguel Boix y Moliner, Martín Martínez, Diego de Torres Villarroel, Sebastián Guerrero Herreros, Ignacio María Ruiz de Luzuriaga, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Pedro Mata y Fontanet, Ángela Grassi, Julián Sanz del Río, Miguel de Unamuno, and Pío Baroja, among others. Drawing on extensive research and analysis, Life Embodied breaks new ground as the first book to address the question of vital force in Spanish modernity. (shrink)

In the history of literary criticism the name of Ortega y Gasset is indispensable, since in this, as well as in all other sectors of cultural activity, the influence of his thought has been most decisive. He opened paths and established guidelines that remain in effect; his vision of the Quijote not only counterbalanced that of Unamuno, against which it purposely rebelled, but also, by underscoring the resources called into play by Cervantes in composing his master work, he has shaped (...) the attitudes of subsequent professional and academic criticism; and his analysis of the personalities of such important writers as Baroja is as yet unsurpassed. Among his many influential works, Francisco Ayala has written Reflexiones sobre la estructura narrativa (criticism) and España, a la fecha. (essays). His collected fiction appeared in 1969 under the title Obras narrativas completas. At Professor Ayala's request, this essay, and Ideas sobre Pío Baroja, by José Ortega y Gasset, were translated by Richard Ford. (shrink)

Jakob Johannes von Uexküll’s biological thought influenced a new path to approach the view of a living being throughout of the twentieth century. At the beginning of the past century, in Spain a “new vertebrate way of thinking” was generated, as Ortega would say. And the work of Uexküll initiated an interest in the circles of thinkers of the likes of Julio Caro Baroja, José Ortega y Gasset, and Xavier Zubiri among others. My aim is describing how Uexküll plays a (...) part in the development in the foundations of thoughts of these thinkers; in particular, Ortega and Zubiri’s thought and their interactions between the circumstantiality and formality, respectively, and Uexküll’s Umwelt. In fact, Ortega’s biological thought was the foundation of his vitalism realism and made a giant step in philosophical anthropology existentialism in his Meditations of Quixote in 1911. We will also see the anthropologist Caro Baroja’s epistemic Uexküll influences. A retrospective view of Spanish thought will be developed, where the seeds of Uexküll made fruitful the development of several authors, as well as some transitive or indirect influences; even the generation of discrepancies in others. Finally, we will describe the development, in Spanish, that had the work of Thure von Uexküll, which includes the work of his father. With Thure, the Uexküll influences in Spain concluded until the start of interest in zoosemiotics and biosemiotics. (shrink)

Revision of the main intellectual referents of Ángel Álvarez de Miranda who was professor of History of Religions at the University of Madrid from 1954 until his death in 1957. A more detailed study is made of Mircea Eliade and Raffaele Pettazzoni, but also are revised Santiago Montero Díaz, Pedro Laín Entralgo, Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, José Ortega y Gasset, Karl Kerenyi, Angelo Brelich, Xavier Zubiri, José Luis López Aranguren, Julio Caro Baroja, Wilhelm Schmidt and Gerardus van der Leeuw.

Excerpt from Frammenti di Estetica e Letteratura Venne, dopo un paio d' anni, una memoria di Bene detto Croce dal titolo: La storia ridotta sotto il concetto generale dell' arte' memoria ardita nella tesi enunciata fin dal titolo, stringata ne' ragionamenti, breve, ta gliente, piena d' osservazioni acute; che, come avviene delle scritture di singolar merito, mise il campo a ru more. Piovvero le critiche, e il Croce rispose in una se conda memoria di Discussioni; che poi riun alla prima (...) e ripubblic con due nuovi scritterelli, i quali miravano a lumeggiare ancor meglio il tema contrastato, in un libro, sul quale anch' io ebbi a scrivere e contro il quale tornarono ad aguzzare le armi i critici, special mente studiosi di storia, scandalezzati, del concetto, cui si voleva ridurre la loro scienza. Uno storico tedesco giunse ad affermare nella Historz'sche Zeitschrift del Sybel, concludendo una sua recensione molto severa, che l'n nico merito delle memorie del Croce era quello di aver dato occasione a un certo libro, che io ho dovuto giudi care, a malincuore, assai duramente per voler essere giusto; dove io afi'ermerei, che l'unico merito di questo libro ' di esser nato in occasione di quegli scritti suggestivi del Croce. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

España, inicios del siglo XX. José Ortega, armado de razón, busca un ideal que guíe su vida, oriente su acción pública e ilumine lo que le rodea. En su demanda se enfrentará con Don Quijote, Unamuno o Baroja; descifrará el neokantismo, la fenomenología, el psicoanálisis; investigará la leyenda milenarista, la prehistoria del criticismo, la anatomía del alma; descubrirá la mujer, la política, el compromiso; predicará el socialismo, la construcción de Europa, la recreación de España y recorrerá Castilla, Marburgo o Asturias (...) para asentarse en El Escorial, donde ya estaba. Los edificios conceptuales se asientan sobre vidas concretas; bajo toda construcción universal transpira una biografía particular. El joven José Ortega propone un recorrido atento por el pensamiento de juventud de Ortega y Gasset, reconstruyendo sus peripecias intelectuales hasta encontrar la razón vital de la razón vital. (shrink)

One of Ortega y Gasset's more important contributions was his theory and methodological use of the concept of perspective. Clearly he´s indebeted to Nietzsche on this issue, but it can also be surmised that Renan was also important in this issue at the time that Ortega was preparing Meditaciones del Quijote. The article compares Renan's criticism of Lamennais with Ortega's interpretation of Pío Baroja focusing not only on the paralelism of their criticisms of established and prominent personalities of their intelectual (...) community, but also on the underlying understanding of cultural practice. (shrink)

Un frammento clinico -/- Lo chiamerò Carlo; ha cinquant’anni, una laurea e buona proprietà di linguaggio; è single, elegante, intelligente, seduttivo, eroinomane. Siamo alla sesta o settima seduta, e non ho ottenuto altro da lui che risposte letterali, e piuttosto banali, alle mie domande; lunghe descrizioni dei suoi molteplici disturbi fisici e altrettanto lunghi silenzi. Eppure di cose da dire ce ne sarebbero parecchie. E’ un brillante dirigente in una industria ingegneristica, ma recentemente lo ha investito un uragano. La sua (...) tossicodipendenza è stata casualmente scoperta sul lavoro ed è stato licenziato in tronco. Nell’arco di pochi mesi ha dovuto vendere il proprio appartamento; benché avesse un ottimo stipendio, Carlo ha infatti accumulato vari debiti, perché l’eroina e le prostitute costano cari. La sua lunga serie di fidanzate, rimpiazzabili al massimo dopo un paio di mesi, si è così rapidamente dileguata. E’ infine tornato a vivere dalla madre e passa il giorno a letto, angosciato da attacchi di panico e somatizzazioni di ogni tipo, tra le quali primeggia l’impotenza. (shrink)

A discussion of the influence of Nietzsche in the Spanish-speaking world, extensive in scope but lacking in depth. Rukser fails to evaluate properly the extent and significance of Nietzsche's effect upon Machado, and he treats Baroja at length but superficially. The bibliography of works on Nietzsche in Spanish is unusually extensive. Unfortunately his acquaintance with the material often does not extend beyond the title, and many important works are left unevaluated.--A. R.

Rastreamos doctrinas unamunianas del Otro en el Edipo, rey de Sólbeles y en el Sofista platónico, edípico hacia el «padre» Parménides al filosofar sobre lo otro (té `ttapov). Examinamos el platonismo del Otro en Del setííimie,zío trágico, en las acotaciones de Unamuno a la tragedia de Sófocles y en su propio drama El Otro.