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Essay and Science

The Santillana Foundation and the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library Foundation are proud to present the most ambitious and efficient spreading tool ever seen by Spanish-language essay.

Essay and Science offers the easiest and most direct access to work by our thinkers and essayists, in English to the international community.

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Books

I Love, therefore I Exist

Manuel Cruz

This book allows us to understand the way those who devoted themselves to thinking about how to love and be loved experienced love themselves.  

Eternal Life

Fernando Savater

 God is elbowing his way into the front stage of the world theater again. This book is about religion, or more pointedly religions: what does belief entail? In what do we believe or not believe?

Nobody is My Name

Eduardo Gil Bera

What became of Homer? Who wrote the Odyssey? In order to find answers, it would be necessary to read the Iliad and the Odyssey as if they had never been understood before. Otherwise, these two questions would be irrelevant or unsolvable.

Liberals

José María Lassalle

The Chapter 4 of this book  analyzes the assumptions on which Locke based his Second Treatise and establishes Locke's text as being fundamental for the development of what is called virtuous liberalism.  

The Open Vision: From the Grail Legend to Surrealism

Victoria Cirlot

The Grail legend gives name to this book, which deals with the possibilities of a perception that goes beyond the physical world. The hidden and the invisible are objects of the imaginative faculty that, in the Middle Ages, was understood to be a God-given visionary...

The Malaise of Democracy

Víctor Pérez-Díaz

This incisive essay explores the generalized malaise that exists in liberal democracies and warns of the need to find out if  these societies are sufficiently prepared to face their representative and existential problems.

The Democratic Fundamentalism

Juan Luis Cebrián

The author draws attention to the totalitarian, authoritarian and demagogic trends of a large part of powers on today's world. This essay also deals with the perverse consequences for our society, full of relinquishments and disappointments.

The Rule of the Game. On the Difficulty of Learning Philosophy

José Luis Pardo

The book attempts to find the rules of the game that guide the innumerable activities of our everyday lives. With the thread of time and sense, the author knits a fascinating discourse that encompasses global pedagogical and political appreciations.

Fictionalised Antiquity

Carlos García Gual

Fictionalised Antiquity traces the evocations of the ancient world, both Greek and Roman, searching for the first examples of this type of literature in late antiquity and in the eighteenth century beyond the austere texts of the historians and the...

The Human Nature

Jesús Mosterín

In recent years we have discovered many things about evolution, the genome and the brain. For the first time in history we are in a position to start to give a reliable answer to the question of what we are. And that is what this ambitious book tries to do.

Images of the City. Poetry and Film, from Whitman to Lorca

Darío Villanueva

The author understands contemporary culture as an eminently urban phenomenon  and, in order to reflect upon it, has chosen a multidisciplinary approach, based upon an analysis of the language of film, literary theory and cultural anthropology.

Imitation and Experience

Javier Gomá Lanzón

Despite the indisputable historical importance of imitation and its role in contemporary thought, no thorough and complete history has been written on the idea of imitation. This is a void this book intends to fill.

The Age of Spirit

Eugenio Trías

The experience of the sacred, the superhuman, has been simultaneously transforming and modifying the way in which human beings conceive the universe and themselves. This is the starting point that invites us to a different voyage throughout the history of knowledge.

Public Virtues

Victoria Camps

The book  is a reflection about the values upon which our communal life must settle in contrast to the apathy and self-complacency that both freedoms and increased wellbeing tend to generate. 

Sacrifice and Creation in the Paintings of Rothko

Amador Vega

The book is an interpretation of the numerous texts that Rothko wrote about matters pertaining to art and religion, a new and surprising approach to the study of the sacred.

Mater Dolorosa. The Concept of Spain in the 19th century

José Álvarez Junco

In this work, José Álvarez Junco analyzes the process through which Spanish identity was built over the course of the 19th century, when the concept of Spain was consolidated with the call to the "War of Independence".

Ethics of Cordial Reason. Educating in Civic Values in the 21st Century

Adela Cortina

This book proposes a new foundation for true ethics of citizenship, based not only on arguments, but also on cordial reason, capable of uniting intelligence, feelings and courage, so as to have the moral values take root in our fellow citizens.

In Praise of Unhappiness

Emilio Lledó

If happiness is a process, a struggle on several fronts, the same might be said of unhappiness, the theme of Lledó's new book, which is a collection of nine essays written over the past five years.

The Democracy of Knowledge

Daniel Innerarity

To the author, knowledge is a field in which democratic quality is fundamentally decided.  

Franco’s Church

Julián Casanova

The Spanish Catholic Church, having greeted the arrival of the Republic as an authentic tragedy, rushed to support the military uprising of June 1936. It never hesitated. It was doing what was necessary, confronting anarchy, socialism and the secular Republic. All...

The Hero and The Only One

Rafael Argullol

The author plunges into the brilliant conceptual world of Romanticism, concentrating on an essential element of the Romantic conception of man: the relationship between the hero and the tragic horizon that reveals itself as its fundament.

Histories of the Two Spains

Santos Juliá

Santos Juliá's brilliant book deals with the cultural creation of the two Spains and with those who  invented it and got it started. He covers everything from the first public writers, through young intellectuals in the mid-20th century.

Philosophy: Questions that Concern us All

Víctor Gómez Pin

To say that if some matter does not speak exclusively of those that concern everyone it cannot be philosophical, is to bring  the philosophical query closer to questions that the human being raises as a mere corollary of a sort of innate tendency.

Dictionary of the Arts

Félix de Azúa

Under the guise of a dictionary, Azúa has written an introduction to the general problem of the arts today. As he says in his prologue, the form of a dictionary allows the reader an anarchy in its reading that is very appropriate to the subject it deals with.

Midnight in History. Comentary on Walter Benjamin's Theses: "On the Concept of History".

Manuel Reyes Mate

The author take us to the heart of Walter Benjamin´s famous essay On the Concept of History and so reconstruct that "theoretical framework." This is no easy task because this work is fragmentary and written in Benjamin's characteristically austere prose.

The Funereal Capitalism

Vicente Verdú

At the beginning the crisis was considered financial. But in reality was the collapse of an  epoch and the decline of a culture. After all, the crisis is only the predictable beginning of another era.

Even by a Nation of Devils: Democracy, Liberalism and Republicanism

Félix Ovejero

In the first part of the book, the author shows that liberal arguments are, in fact, the result of institutional problems of liberalism. The second part of the book focuses on republican tradition and its idea of democracy.

Authors

Darío Villanueva

(Vilalba, Spain, 1950). He obtained his Ph.D. in Hispanic Philology from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He is professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, a university from which he received a degree in Humanities in 1972 and of which he...

Santos Juliá

(Ferrol, Spain, 1940). He studied in Seville, at the San Isidoro Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid and has held research grants at Stanford and Oxford. He joined the Spanish National University for Distance Learning...

Eugenio Trías

(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...

Victoria Cirlot

(Barcelona, Spain, 1955). She is currently a professor of Romance Philology in the Humanities Department at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University and head of the same university's Ph.D. program. She has devoted her study to the Middle Ages: the culture of chivalry and...

Emilio Lledó

(Seville, Spain, 1927). He studied philosophy and classics at the University of Madrid, where he graduated top of his class in 1952. The following year, he won a scholarship to the University of Heidelberg in Germany at the proposal of Hans Georg Gadamer and Karl...

Daniel Innerarity

(Bilbao 1959) is a professor of political and social philosophy and Ikerbasque researcher at the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea. A former fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Munich and visiting professor...

Juan Luis Cebrián

He studied Philosophy at the  Complutense University of Madrid and graduated from the Official School of Journalism of Madrid in 1963. He was a founding member of the magazine Cuadernos para el diálogo (1963) and from 1963 to 1975 he worked as the chief...

Adela Cortina

Born in Valencia, she is professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the University of Valencia, where she did her undergraduate and doctoral degrees in Philosophy. She further pursued her research at the Universities of Munich and Frankfurt as fellow of the...

Félix Ovejero

Writer and professor of Economics, Ethics and Social Sciences at the University of Barcelona, where he was awarded his Ph.D. in Economics. He completed long-term stays as Visiting Professor at the Universities of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has...

Fernando Savater

(San Sebastián, Spain, 1947). His first studies were at the Marianist school at the Cuesta de Aldapeta. When he was thirteen years old, his family moved to Madrid, where he finished high school at the school of El Pilar. He pursued a degree in Humanities,...

José Álvarez Junco

(Viella, Lérida, Spain, November 8, 1942). He holds a degree in Law (1964) and Political Science (1965) from the University of Madrid and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the same university (1974), which by then was known as the Complutense. He studied English...

José María Lassalle

Santander, 1966. Doctor of Law and Professor of Philosophy of Law at the King Juan Carlos University of Madrid.  He was a professor at the University of Cantabria and at the Carlos III University in Madrid and he is a contributor to  the Revista de...

Víctor Gómez Pin

Born in Barcelona and moved to Paris at an early age, where he studied Philosophy. He obtained the degree of Docteur d'état  from the Sorbonne with a thesis about the Aristotelian order. After years of teaching in Dijon and Paris, he obtained professorship...

Vicente Verdú

(Elche, Spain, 1942). A writer and journalist, a large part of his professional career has been linked to El País, one of Spain 's leading newspapers, where he has been Editor of the opinion and cultural sections. He is also a regular collaborator of the journal...

Julián Casanova

Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Zaragoza.  His publications include La historia social y los historiadores   (Crítica, Barcelona, 1991); De la calle al frente. El anarcosindicalismo en España, 1931-1939   ...

Victoria Camps

(Barcelona, Spain, 1947). She holds degree in Philosophy from the University of Barcelona (1965), and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1975). She has worked as professor of Philosophy at the Autonomous University of...

Javier Gomá Lanzón

(Bilbao, Spain, 1965). He holds degrees in Classical Philology and Law, as well as a Ph.D. in Philosophy and is a member of the Council of State (he was first of his year). He has been the director of the Juan March Foundation since 2003. He received the prize...

Rafael Argullol

(Barcelona, Spain, 1949). He studied Philosophy, Medicine, Economics and Media Studies at the University of Barcelona and also took courses at the University of Rome, the Warburg Institute of London and the Free University of Berlin; and obtained his Ph.D. in...

Manuel Cruz

(Barcelona) is a professor of Contemporary Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. He has been a visiting professor at various European and American universities, as well as a research fellow at the CSIC Institute of Philosophy (Madrid). He has written more than...

Amador Vega

(Barcelona, 1958) holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany) and the Aesthetics Chair in the Humanities Department of Pompeu Fabra University. He was "Joan Coromines Visiting Professor" at the University of...

Víctor Pérez-Díaz

(Madrid, Spain, 1938). He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University and has taught Political Science at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California, San Diego, and the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris....

Eduardo Gil Bera

(Tudela, Spain ,1957). He is an essayist, translator, poet and novelist. He has translated Montaigne, Rilke, Joseph Roth, Sloterdjik, Morgenstern, Hölderlin, Ungaretti, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Stuart Mill among others. He has published the essay...

Manuel Reyes Mate

This philosopher holds a Ph.D. from the University of Münster (1972), Germany, and  the Autonomous University of Madrid (1980), Spain. In 1990 he co-founded the Institute of Philosophy in Madrid, of which he was principal until 1998. Today, he heads...

Jesús Mosterín

(Bilbao, Spain, 1941). He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid, after which he studied under Hans Hermes at the Institut für mathematische Logik und Grundlagenforschung at the University of Münster.  He...

Félix de Azúa

(Barcelona, Spain, 1944). He holds a Doctorate in Philosophy, is professor of Aesthetics and he is a regular collaborator of the newspaper El País . He has published books of poetry including Cepo para nutria, El velo en el rostro de Agamenón , Edgar en...

Carlos García Gual

(Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1943). He is a professor of Greek Philology at the Complutense University of  Madrid, and one of the most representative figures of the Spanish cultural life. Among his numerous books of literary and mythological studies,...

José Luis Pardo

(Madrid, Spain, 1954). He is professor of Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid. He regularly writes for periodicals such as El Viejo Topo, Los Cuadernos del Norte, Revista de Occidente, Archipiélago o Claves de razón práctica ,...

Articles

Difficulties Starting a War

Félix de Azúa

Those who are strangers to war remain blind to the makings of war all around them; the mental process by which an ordinary person may come to see as right the slaughter of a neighbor, a colleague or even a political fellow-traveler lies beyond their understanding. This much can only be expected. What comes as a surprise, says Félix de Azúa , is that those who did know war - Spain's Generación del '36, who lived through the Spanish Civil War, and the generations who...

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From the ‘300’ to Aeschylus.
Depictions of the barbaric Persians and the athletic Spartans

Carlos García Gual

In Carlos García Gual's opinion, the release of films like 'Troy', 'Alexander', or more recently '300', provides an excellent opportunity to return to the texts that the movies were based on; directors and producers have repeatedly demonstrated that their loyalties lie more with public preferences than with archaeological history or classical narratives. Despite underlining certain notable incongruities in the films and pointing the reader towards books that better reflect the most...

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Excellence in Healthcare Professions

Victoria Camps

In this article,  Victoria Camps further develops the notions that she presented in her book Virtudes públicas : embedded within the idea of professionalism, including professionalism par excellence or that of any number of professions, there is a strong scientific and technical component in the definition of the term. Unfortunately, laments the author, a good professional is considered someone who is, above all, an expert and not someone who is morally committed to what he or...

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The Rhetoric of “Yes We Can”

Darío Villanueva

   Darío Villanueva outlines the history and significance of the rhetorical tradition and highlights the striking persistence of the power of the word in American politics. Even in our high-tech age, a three-word tagline -"Yes We Can"- carries devastating clout. The Greek sophists -the original masters of rhetoric, notorious for their appetite for influence rather than truth- would be both impressed by the abiding power of their art, and dismayed that, in the...

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