Objetives:
This twelve-week course offers a brief overview of the greatest Hispanic philosophers of the 20th century. It will discuss the main tendencies of contemporary Spanish philosophy starting from an analysis of the different ways in which Spanish thinkers have approached Don Quijote. The main thread of this overview is the attempt to formulate a “vital reason”, defined by the authors’ approach to Cervantes’ masterpiece - which summarizes, in their view, the totality of Spanish metaphysics, essence of a universal problem acquiring its particular shape on Spanish soil: Don Quixote’s idealism versus Sancho Panza’s realism, faith which distrusts the senses and sensuality which distrusts the other side of things, the forging of corteous love and irony in the figure of Dulcinea, villager and inspirer of the knight’s adventures, etc.
The course will begin with Miguel de Unamuno’s Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho, which emphasizes Don Quijote’s radical modernity - his desire of immortality - as part of this author’s main heritage. We will subsequently see how Ortega y Gasset, in his Meditaciones sobre el Quijote, vindicates the genuinely Spanish character of Sancho Panza: between the real and the ideal world, eager to believe but incapable of doing so, longing for higher goods but unwilling to abandon earthly possessions. In this duality, Quijote-Sancho, the weight is now in the latter’s side. At the same time, Ortega attempts an ingenious interpretation of the birth of contemporary novel and the question of Don Quijote’s genre. Thus the two main arteries of Ortegan thought become evident: the “perspectivist” nature of intelligence (“I am myself and my circumstances”) and his peculiar philosophy of love.
We will analyze the great influence of this approach on Ortega’s two greatest disciples: Xavier Zubiri and María Zambrano. There is no specific study of Don Quijote in Zubiri, but we will note how Cervantes’ particular conception of reality agrees with the elaboration of a new scholasticism, redefining naïve realism as a new current corresponding to the forging of “vital reason” in the way of “sensitive intelligence”, as shown in his Inteligencia sentiente: inteligencia y realidad. Zambrano, on the other side, recreates Ortega’s concept of vital reason in the way of “poetic reason”, as expounded in Poesía y filosofía and Hacia un saber sobre el alma, where she vindicates the role of the feminine as essence and icon of the human. In her book España. Sueño y verdad, Zambrano regards Dulcinea as the true protagonist of the novel and inspirer of Cervantes’ work.
Methodology and evaluation:
The course dynamics will consist of textual work: systematic reading and discussion of compulsory texts. Each thematic section is preceded by an introduction to the basic aspects of each author, historical and philosophical context and an analysis of his/her evolution. Between sections we will carry out a comparative appraisal of the main lines of thought between authors, covering the motifs which constitute the main fields of philosophical evolution from Unamuno to Zambrano.
The final grade will result from the average of three papers (50%) discussing compulsory readings related to Don Quijote (Unamuno, Ortega y Gasset, Zambrano), plus one grade for an exam (50%) consisting either of one question regarding general aspects discussed in class, or a 15-page paper (50%), the subject and organization of which will be agreed with the teacher.
Program:
This program is intended to be completed in three months, in forty-eight sessions of one hour. It will be divided into four thematic sections (one for each author), each preceded by a general introduction and followed by a conclusion.
General Introduction:
Session 1: The transformation of Metaphysics in the German philosophers of the 19th and 20th century: from eternal being to historical being (F. Brentano, E. Husserl, M. Heidegger, E. Stein, H. Arendt y H. Jonas). The reception of German Metaphysics in Spanish thought of the 20th century. Don Quijote, by Miguel de Cervantes. History, development and reception. Don Quijote as myth of disjointed Spain.
Compulsory reading:
RIQUER, M. (ed.), El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, Planeta, Barcelona, 1981.
Section 1: The rebirth of Spanish philosophy in the works of Miguel de Unamuno.
Session 2: 19th century heritage in the works of Miguel de Unamuno. “Quijotesco” and “sanchopancista”: two aspects of complex personalities in disjointed Spain as treated in Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho.
Session 3: Don Quijote as first modern novel: the origins of modern individualism. Human desire of immortality: from fame to individual post-mortem survival.
Session 4: The “chivalrous” ideal as desire for immortality: Don Quijote. Don Quijote’s madness as lucidity: idealism and reality in Cervantes’ enterprise.
Session 5: The tragic character of Don Quijote as inspirer of Unamuno’s tragic creed in Del sentimiento trágico de la vida en los hombres y en los pueblos. Modernity and tradition in Don Quijote. Conflicts of the Counter-Reformation: faith and thought in Agonía del cristianismo.
Session 6: Unamunian interpretation of Don Quijote as expression of the tragic desire for immortality. Modern conscience of the conflict between belief and knowledge, “chivalrous” and bourgeois ideals, in Don Quijote.
Compulsory reading:
UNAMUNO, M., Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho, Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, 1975.
Recommended reading:
UNAMUNO, M., Del sentimiento trágico de la vida, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2003.
UNAMUNO, M., La agonía del cristianismo, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2000.
Section 2: The discovery of “sanchopancismo” in the works of Ortega y Gasset
Session 7: The “tragic” character of Spanish culture in the beginnings of the 20th century. Ortega y Gasset in Germany. The German heritage in Ortegan thought.
Session 8: Reconciliation of “reason” and “life”: Ortegan “raciovitalismo”. Cognitive perspectivism in Meditaciones sobre el Quijote.
Session 9: Ortega’s philosophy of love. The “chivalrous” ideal of corteous love in Don Quijote. The ideal of the emergent bourgeois. La rebelión de las masas and La deshumanización del arte.
Session 10: The discovery of “sanchopancismo” in Don Quijote. Sancho’s naïve realism versus Don Quijote’s naïve idealism.
Session 11: The duality Don Quijote-Sancho as essence of the Spanish character: the “bourgeois knight” or the “chivalrous bourgeois”. Don Quijote as historical portrait and historical reality. Raciovitalismo as philosophico-historical conception in Don Quijote.
Compulsory reading:
ORTEGA Y GASSET, J., Meditaciones del Quijote, edición a cargo de Julián Marías, Cátedra, Letras Hispánicas, Madrid, 2001, pp. 177-247.
Recommended reading:
ORTEGA Y GASSET, J., Historia como sistema, El Arquero, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1975.
ORTEGA Y GASSET, J., ¿Qué es filosofía?, El Arquero, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1966.
Section 3: The discovery of reality in the works of X. Zubiri: Symbolism in Don Quijote.
Session 12: The heritage of Ortega’s philosophical project in Zubiri: a new breed of scholastics.
Session 13: A reformulation of scholastics: Franz Brentano and E. Husserl. Presence of Zubiri in Germany and the philosophical roots of his thought. The attempt to reformulate realism: the discovery of the sensitive roots of intelligence.
Session 14: Zubiri’s “inteligencia sentiente” as an answer to the conflict between “reason” and “heart”, symbolized in the duality Don Quijote-Sancho. Modern conflict between “reason” and “heart”: the polemics between Descartes and Pascal.
Session 15: Zubiri’s symbolic reading of Don Quijote. “Inteligencia sentiente” as reconciliation between Ancient and Modern in Spanish culture. Zubiri and tradition recovered.
Session 16: A modern reformulation of the traditional concept of truth: El hombre y la verdad (1966). Truth in Don Quijote according to Zubiri: reconciliation between Don Quijote and Sancho.
Session 17: The relationship between “symbol” and “idea” in the Zubirian approach to Don Quijote.
Compulsory reading:
ZUBIRI, X., Inteligencia sintiente. Inteligencia y realidad, Alianza Editorial, Fundación Xavier Zubiri, Madrid, 1998, pp. 19-27; 229-242.
Recommended reading:
ZUBIRI, X., El hombre y la verdad, Alianza Editorial, Fundación Xavier Zubiri, Madrid, 1999.
Section 4: Don Quijote’s feminine face: Dulcinea del Toboso.
Session 18: María Zambrano: “vital reason in exile”. The Civil War and intellectual Diaspora. Zambrano’s acquaintance with Latin-American thought.
Session 19: An enlargement of the narrowness of reason. “Poetic reason”: Poesía y filosofía (1939). Metaphysical foundations for “poetic reason”. La vida es sueño: el sueño creador (1988). Poetic visions of History: El hombre y lo divino (1955).
Session 20: Love as origin of dreamt reality. Dulcinea del Toboso as incarnation of love and inspiration of Don Quijote’s dream.
Session 21: Duplicity of the feminine as inspiring principle of the chivalric ideal in Don Quijote: Dulcinea-Aldonza Loza. Teresa Panza as bourgeois idea of corteous love.
Session 22: Real and dreamt women in the work of Cervantes. Femininity and Love as driving forces of the ideal of knowledge.
Compulsory reading:
ZAMBRANO, M., España, sueño y verdad, Siruela, Madrid, 1994, pp. 15-48.
Recommended reading:
ZAMBRANO, M., Persona y Democracia, Siruela, Madrid, 1996.
Conclusions.
Session 23: Don Quijote and philosophy. Philosophy and Literature. Don Quijote as modern myth and philosophy as philosophy of culture.
Session 24: The original sense of symbolsim in literary and philosophical thought: the original unity of the Arts. Don Quijote as heritage and future project of an invertebrate Spain.
SYLLABUS
Week 1: Introduction. Reading: Don Quijote.
Week 2: Introduction to Unamuno. Reading: Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho.
Week 3: Del sentimiento trágico de la vida and Don Quijote.
Week 4: Ortega’s “raciovitalismo”. Reading: Meditaciones sobre el Quijote.
Week 5: Ortega’s theory of love. La rebelión de las masas.
Week 6: “Sanchopanzismo” as center of Ortega’s interpretation.
Week 7: Reading: La inteligencia sentiente, by X. Zubiri.
Week 8: Symbolic readings of Don Quijote in Zubiri.
Week 9: Reason in exile. Introduction to María Zambrano.
Week 10: “Poetic reason” in Zambrano. Reading: España, sueño y verdad.
Week 11: Dulcinea del Toboso.
Week 12: Don Quijote and Spanish metaphysics in the 20th century.
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