Julián Marías Aguilera (17 June 1914 – 15 December 2005) was a Spanish philosopher associated with the Generation of '36 movement. He was a pupil of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset and member of the Madrid School.
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Life and work
Marías was born in the city of Valladolid, and moved to Madrid at the age of five. He went on to study philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid, graduating in 1936. Within months of his graduation the Spanish Civil War broke out. During the conflict Marías sided with the Republicans, although his actual contributions were limited to propaganda articles and broadcasts.
After the end of the war in 1939, Marías was imprisoned for several months on false charges, and was unable to carry out university teaching activities after his release. His doctoral thesis was rejected due to the committee's animosity towards someone who was a disciple of Ortega. In 1940, his History of Philosophy was published — his first work published after the civil war — and although it ended up being a great publishing success, it led him to go through a period of financial difficulties due to his being banned from teaching by the Franco regime, and so Marías instead supported himself with private classes and translations.
In 1948 he co-founded, along with his former teacher José Ortega y Gasset, the Instituto de Humanidades (which he went on to head after the death of Ortega in 1955). Between the late 1940s and the 1970s, being unable to teach in Spain, Marías taught at numerous institutions in the United States, including Harvard University, Yale University, Wellesley College, the University of Oklahoma, and UCLA.
Marías wrote on a wide variety of subjects during his long career. A subject of particular interest was Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. In 1964 he was elected into the Real Academia Española, and he won a Prince of Asturias award in 1996.
He is the father of novelist Javier Marías and art historian Fernando Marías, and married the sister of director Jesús Franco.
Works
Juventud en el mundo antiguo. Crucero universitario por el Mediterráneo, Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, 1934
Historia de la filosofía, with a prologue by Xavier Zubiri, epilogue by José Ortega y Gasset, Revista de Occidente, Madrid 1941 (28th ed., 1976)
La filosofía del Padre Gratry. La restauración de la Metafísica en el problema de Dios y de la persona, Escorial, Madrid 1941
Miguel de Unamuno, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1943
El tema del hombre, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1943
San Anselmo y el insensato y otros estudios de filosofía, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1944
Introducción a la filosofía, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1947
La filosofía española actual. Unamuno, Ortega, Morente, Zubiri, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1948
El método histórico de las generaciones, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1949
Ortega y tres antípodas. Un ejemplo de intriga intelectual, Revista de Occidente, Buenos Aires, 1950
Biografía de la Filosofía, Emecé, Buenos Aires, 1954
Ensayos de teoría, Barna, Barcelona, 1954
Idea de la Metafísica, Columba, Buenos Aires, 1954
La estructura social. Teoría y método, Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones, Madrid, 1955
Selected works in translation
Reason and Life: The Introduction to Philosophy, trans. Kenneth S. Reid and Edward Sarmiento (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956).
History of Philosophy, trans. Stanley Appelbaum and Clarence C. Strowbridge (New York: Dover Publications, 1966).
Miguel de Unamuno, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966).
José Ortega y Gasset: Circumstance and Vocation, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970).
Metaphysical Anthropology: The Empirical Structure of Human Life, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971).
Philosophy as Dramatic Theory, trans. James Parsons (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971).
Generations: A Historical Method, trans. Harold C. Raley (University: University of Alabama Press, 1971).
America in the Fifties and Sixties: Julián Marías on the United States, trans. Blanche De Puy and Harold C. Raley (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971).
A Biography of Philosophy, trans. Harold C. Raley (University: University of Alabama Press, 1987).
The Structure of Society, trans. Harold C. Raley with an introduction by Robert K. Merton (University: University of Alabama Press, 1987).
Understanding Spain, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990).