Other Voices

Highdesert

Description

English-speaking philosophers are generally attuned to the German and French philosophical traditions but not to the Spanish. Why, for example, does someone with the vivid appeal of Bartolomé de Las Casas remain almost completely unknown in North America? The purpose of this anthology is to introduce the Spanish philosophical tradition to English-speaking readers.

Other Voices: Readings in Spanish Philosophy represents high points of nearly two millennia of Spanish philosophy, from first-century thinkers in Roman Hispania to those of the twentieth century. John R. Welch has selected, and in several cases translated excerpts from the works of thirteen philosophers: Seneca, Quintilian, Isidore of Seville, Ibn Rushd (Averroës), Moses Maimonides, Ramón Llull, Juan Luis Vives, Francisco de Vitoria, Bartolomé de Las Casas, Francisco Suárez, Benito Jerónimo Feijóo, Miguel de Unamuno, and José Ortega y Gasset. Welch provides for the reader a brief introduction to each historical period or philosophical movement represented and a biographical introduction to each philosopher. Of special interest are the selection from Feijóo's "A Defense of Women" (an attack on misogyny), which has not been translated into English since the eighteenth century; the arguments on the justification of war by Vitoria and Las Casas (in the context of the Spanish conquest); and Unamuno's celebration of the concrete over the abstract, desire over reason.

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Latin American
• PHILOSOPHY
• American philosophy
• Linguistics
• Ortega (surname)
• Ortega
• Caribbean
• Seneca
• Miguel de Unamuno
• Renaissance

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268096632
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Readings in Spanish Philosophy John R. Welch

Notre Dame, IN 46556 undpress.nd.edu Cover photo: Photo of a building on thesite of the Alhambra in Granada, courtesy of John R.Welch. Cover design: Margaret Gloster

Welch

Other Voices Readings in Spanish Philosophy

Edited by John R. Welch

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Other Voices Readings in Spanish Philosophy

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University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2010 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Other voices : readings in Spanish philosophy / edited by John R. Welch. p. cm. Selections in English translated from Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, or Spanish originals. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-268-04419-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-268-04419-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy, Spanish. I. Welch, John R. B4561.O84 2010 196'.1—dc22 2010008785

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

To my parents, the !rst voices

Preface

Contents

! + $ ROMAN S PAI N Seneca Moral Letters:Philosophy as Self-Defense

Quintilian Institutio oratoria:The Orator as Philosopher

" , ! VI S I GOTHI C S P AI N Isidore of Seville Etymologies:Rhetoric, Dialectic, Philosophy, and Law

" # % $ $ THE HI GH MI DDL E AGE S Ibn Rushd (Averroës) The Decisive Treatise, Determining the Nature of the Connection between Religion and Philosophy

Moses Maimonides The Guide of the Perplexed:God and the World’s Creation

Ramón Llull Ars brevis:A Philosophical Calculator

ix

1 3 5

21 23

45 47 49

55 57

59

89 92

117 120

viii Contents

. ! / % THE RE NAI S S ANCE Juan Luis Vives On the Soul and Life:The Passions

. ' & $ THE AGE OF DI S COVE RY Francisco de Vitoria On the Law of War:Can War Ever Be Just?

Bartolomé de Las Casas In Defense of the Indians:On Human Sacri0ce and Cannibalism

) ' 1 THE COUNTE R- RE F ORMATI ON Francisco Suárez On Laws:Power and the People

) $ & $ + THE E NL I GHTE NME NT Benito Jerónimo Feijóo A Defense of Women:Equality despite Di2erence

$ ' 3 # " THE GE NE RATI ON OF ’ 9 8 Miguel de Unamuno The Tragic Sense of Life:A Quixotic Ethics

+ ' + $ THE S CHOOL OF MADRI D José Ortega y Gasset History as a System:A Plea for Historical Reason

NOTES

137 139 142

171 173 176

209

212

233 237 240

257 259 262

285 289 292

309 313 316

333

Preface

Rainer Maria Rilke once spent most of a night lying awake beneath the great Sphinx.Later, in describing his quest for insight into the world’s particulars, he recounted the culminating experience of that night:

Behind the great projecting crown on the Sphinx’s head, an owl had 4own up and had slowly, indescribablyaudiblyin the pure depths of the night, brushed the face with her faint 4ight: and now, upon my hearing, which had grown very acute in the hours-long nocturnal silence, the out- 1 line of that cheek was (as though by a miracle) inscribed.

This encounter between the owl and the Sphinx belonged to Rilke in a special sense; he was its sole human participant, its only witness. But the encounter has become ours as well, thanks to Rilke’s text. Yet it is not ours in the same sense. The owl that Rilke saw was a particular, brief and barely present. The owl that we see through Rilke is a type; it per- sists because it is profoundly symbolic. Rilke’s owl is the owl of Athena, who speaks the world with the sweep of its wings. Athena has more than one owl, and they speak with more than one voice. Because they cannot all be heard at once, philosophers develop selective listening habits to help them cope. English-speaking philoso- phers are generally attuned to the German and French philosophical traditions, for instance, but not to the Spanish. I 0rst became aware of this when not a single Spanish philosopher was so much as mentioned in my graduate courses in philosophy in the United States. The same pat- tern is repeated in the culture at large. Why, for example, does someone with the vivid and near-local appeal of Bartolomé de Las Casas remain almost completely unknown to native English speakers in North America? This cultural lopsidedness was the target of Robert Caponi- gri’s anthology of contemporary Spanish philosophy:

ix