The Spanish Philosophy that José Gaos Transferred to Mexico

Abstract

The idea of “exile as transplant” can also be applied to the philosophical thought that José Gaos took with him to Mexico. Gaos already had his own original philosophy when he left Spain in 1938. It was a peculiar defense and assimilation of Ortega's raciovitalism. In his case, the idea of human life as the radical reality was also connected with a denunciation of metaphysics, with a “prosopopoeia of the philosopher”, as he would say in the last philosophy lesson given at Ortega's Faculty. Also from these years of the Civil War dates his claim that there had been a genuine modern thought in Spain. It is of notable interest to link these clear outlines of his mature philosophy with his formalization, already in 1945, that in the Latin American reality there prevailed a philosophical thought of literary expression and with a firm political projection. We conclude by pointing out some possible doubts about the internal balance of these different elements.