The Age of Spirit

(Barcelona, Spain, 1942). In 1960 he began his degree in philosophy at the University of Barcelona, continuing his further studies at the universities of Navarra (Pamplona), Madrid, Bonn and Cologne. In 1964, he presented his undergraduate thesis Alma y Bien según Platón (Soul and Goodness according to Plato). Since then, he has been unfailingly pursued his career in the filed of philosophical creation, always paying particular attention to the linguistic roots of thought in Spanish.

From 1965 until 1970, he held positions as Assistant Professor and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the universities Central and Autónoma of Barcelona. In 1969 he published his first book, La filosofía y su sombra, a work that was very well received by the intelligentsia of the time. In the same spirit of this work of youth, we should also mention the following works and awards: Filosofía y carnaval (1970), Metodología del pensamiento mágico (1971), La dispersión (1971, 3 editions), Drama e identidad (1973, 3 editions) and Premio Nueva Critica 1974.

He spent the academic year of 1972-1973 living between Brazil and Argentina, in whose capital, Buenos Aires, he gave various courses and conferences. In 1976 he occupied the position of Aesthetics and Composition Lecturer at the School of Architecture in Barcelona, where he became Professor in 1986. In 1992 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities of the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at the aforementioned university.

He has received numerous awards and honorary acknowledgements to his creative labour, among whom the following stand out: in 1975 he received the Premio Anagrama de Ensayo  for El artista y la ciudad; in 1983 the Premio Nacional de Ensayo for Lo bello y lo siniestro; in 1995 the prize Ciutat de Barcelona for La edad del espíritu; and that same year he received the XIII International Friedrich Nietzsche Prize for his work in philosophy, becoming the only Spanish philosopher to have received that prize to date.

In 2007 his monumental work El canto de las sirenas received the Terenci Moix and Qwerty awards. In2009 he received the journalistic award Mariano de Cavia, for an article published in 2008 by ABC under the title of El gran viaje.

His presence in the leading Spanish newspapers (El País, El Mundo, ABC, La Vanguardia, etc.) is worth mentioning, as is his participation and organization of conference cycles throughout Spain.

Besides the aforementioned books, he has published, among others Tratado de la pasión (1978, 4 editions in Spain; 1 in Mexico), El lenguaje del perdón. Lo bello y lo siniestro (1981, 5 editions), Filosofía del futuro (1984, 2 editions), Los límites del mundo (1985, 2 editions), La aventura filosófica (1987), Lógica del límite (1991), El cansancio de occidente (1992, 4 editions), La edad del espíritu (1994, 3 editions), Pensar la religión (1997, 2 editions), Vértigo y pasión (1998, 2 editions), La razón fronteriza (1999), Ciudad sobre ciudad (2001), El árbol de la vida (2003), El hilo de la verdad (2004), La política y su sombra (2005), El canto de las sirenas (2007) and La imaginación sonora (2010).