Independent, heterodox, man of words and ideas.
José Luis López-Aranguren
was the most influential intellectual of the 2nd half of the XX century.
And one of the most remarkable Spanish philosophers.
He did a flawless job as a professor of ethics and sociology.
in the Universidad Complutense
until he was expelled for his overt opposition to Franco's dictatorship.
He left Spain and worked on developing in diverse foreign universities
a long, complex and dissident work.
To take a close look to this prolific philosophical legacy
Carlos Gómez has carried out a very appropriate selection
of some texts that summarize to a large extent Aranguren's ideas.
An anthology that has been recently published by "UNED editorial" and "Trotta".
I've tried to combine chronological and systematic criteria
highlighting, according to Aranguren's own approaches
three main matters.
In the first place, religion
and religious attitudes
addressing his Christian existentialism,
his subsequent heterodox Christianity
and the dialogue between religions and culture in general.
Religious pluralism
but pluralism within each of the faiths.
This is something that no current thinker has ever worked on.
Not even Ross or Habermas.
Pluralism inside the churches.
Otherwise they seem narrow and monolithic structures.
And Aranguren deals with it perfectly.
He sees that churches as open structures.
In the second place, ethics and moral life
since Aranguren followed Unamuno, Ortega and Zubiri
and he became the first great ethic's producer in our country.
Being moral is something intrinsic to us.
Actually, being immoral is nothing but being moral in other way.
Because I have a much wider moral concept
which consists on fulfilling this precept.
So in that sense being human is the same as being moral.
From an ethical point of view it is a lovely idea
which is that people's life is an authentic task, as Ortega says.
We make ourselves little by little.
We become ourselves choosing our best elements, our best virtues.
A good life's construction, an attitude inherent in people.
An attitude that has to be shaped
over the basis of what in Greek ethics is called "the virtues"
a series of habits, a way of being
which is eventually expressed in a moral attitude,
something he also wanted to apply to politics.
If we don't like politics, to a great extent,
politics as it is now in Spain,
it is largely our responsibility
we have to assume thoroughly our role of fighting for a democracy
which it is not done voting in June 15th
or whenever it corresponds next time
but assuming this role of active democracy
through each and every act and moment of our lives.
I think that's how democracy will be achieved.
When Aranguren becomes an intellectual figure
when he works as an intellectual and understands that figure as a profession
he sees that profession as democracy's moral conscience
as the moral attitude towards democracy.
Apart from those three first areas, religion, ethics and politics
we find a second group formed by his autobiographic and literary works
and about public life.
He always supported the democratic process in our country through the 'Transition'
though he was very critical of that process.
A criticism explained through his will for disagreement
for not being reconciled at all
for thinking that democracy
is a moral demand that sets the bar high.
The most interesting thing about Aranguren is his great modernity.
If he were a thinker that served for the 20th century
but has nothing to tell us in the 21st century
I think it wouldn't be worth making an anthology
since anyone could read the complete works.
It is an utopia being a democrat in that sense
but the young know very well that utopia is the only worthy thing in life.