Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez (September 17, 1915 – July 8, 2011) was a
Spanish-born Mexican philosopher, writer and professor born in
Algeciras
Algeciras ( , ) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeci ...
,
Andalucia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...
.
Biography
After studying philosophy at the
University of Madrid, Vázquez emigrated to Mexico in 1939 with thousands of other intellectuals, scientists and artists following the defeat of the Republic in the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
, in which he participated as editor of the central publication of the Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas (JSU) “Ahora”. Sánchez was appointed a full-time professor of philosophy at the
National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1959, becoming a
professor emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of the university in 1985.
[Galván Chávez, Ana. "Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez y el marxismo" ("Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez and Marxism") Retrieved 22 Mar. 2009. ] Sánchez also held honorary doctoral degrees from the
Universidad Autónoma de Puebla and the
University of Cádiz
The University of Cádiz (in Spanish: Universidad de Cádiz), commonly referred to as UCA, is a public university located in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, noted for its medicine and marine sciences curricula. It was founded in 1979 ...
(Spain).
[Galván Chávez, Ana. "Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez y el marxismo" ("Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez and Marxism"). Retrieved 22 Mar. 2009. ]
He embraced
Marxism
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
, although an open, renovating, critical and non-dogmatic version of it. His fresh interpretation of Marxism ran parallel to that of the
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
. In fact, ''The Philosophy of Praxis'' was published at around the same time as
Herbert Marcuse was writing his ''
One Dimensional Man''. In regard to
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...
, he opposed
normativism.
Philosophical works
* ''The Aesthetic Ideas of Marx'' (1965)
* ''The Philosophy of Praxis'' (1967)
* ''Rousseau in Mexico (The Philosophy of Rousseau and the Ideology of Independence) (1969)
* ''Aesthetics and Marxism'' (1970)
* ''Anthology. Texts of Aesthetics and Theory of Art'' (1972)
* ''Art and Society: Essays in Marxist Aesthetics'' (1973)
* ''From Scientific Socialism to Utopian Socialism'' (1975).
Miscellaneous
Memoirs
* ''Recollections and Reflections of an Exile'' (1997)
Poetry
* ''Poetry'' (2005)
See also
*
Western Marxism
Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an i ...
References
* Gandler, Stefan
''Critical Marxism in Mexico: Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez and Bolívar Echeverría'' Leiden/Boston, Brill Academic Press, 2015. 467 pages. .(Historical Materialism Book Series, ; vol. 87.)
* Gandler, Stefan: ''Peripherer Marxismus. Kritische Theorie in Mexiko.'' Hamburg, Berlin: Argument-Verlag, 1999. 459 pages, .
* Gandler, Stefan: ''Marxismo crítico en México, Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez y Bolívar Echeverría.'' (Foreword: Michael Löwy.) México, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica / Facultad de Filosofía y Letras UNAM / Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, 2007, 621 pages, . Reprint: 2008.
External links
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Spanish Philosopher Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez Dies in Mexico
1915 births
2011 deaths
20th-century Spanish philosophers
Marxist theorists
Marxist writers
Mexican philosophers
Mexican male writers
National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni
National Autonomous University of Mexico faculty
People from Algeciras
Spanish philosophers
Spanish emigrants to Mexico
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