Philosopher this morning Gregory Luri went to It’s morning Federico talk about your latest book Axis of Peace: Conquering Yourself in Spain’s Golden Age. Its intention, as the name suggests, is to reaffirm Spain’s contribution to Western liberal thought, and Jiménez Losantos acknowledged this. “If one thing is clear, it is that Golden Age economic thought is the first liberal, global and innovative thought in history,” he commented. Luri addressed the issue from all cultural perspectives of the time, from economic discussions based on the theology of the Salamanca school to the literary works of the great Spanish geniuses of the 16th and 17th centuries. “In all of them, with Lazarillo and then with Don Quixote, the idea of freedom and responsibility in oneself was already implicit.”
“Spanish mystics doubt more radically than Descartes.”, – commented Luri, trying to exalt the forgotten Spanish contribution to Western thought. “And that’s why it’s so sad that our high school students study, for example, Locke, but they don’t know anything about him. Francis Suarezwhich was much richer and deeper in every way.” “Most of what Locke said has already been said by Suarez, but when they said different things, Suarez was always up-to-date.”
To all of these are added the contributions of many others, listed by both Luri and Jiménez Losantos. “Martin Azpilicueta, for example, to which we owe the first theory of inflation. OR Juan de Marianawho was the first to justify the overthrow of a Christian prince if he persisted in going too far with the people.” that in Spain kings argued with philosophers about the political nature of power and the legitimacy of whoever wields it. And that’s what’s in Spanish political doctrine, at least among the Habsburgs, the power of the king does not come from God. It’s something else. The political nature of man comes from God. And from this point of view, any system is good only to the extent that it satisfactorily implements the political nature of man.
It all started at the beginning with a basic question: “How can we be created in the image and likeness of God? Because from this comes our own dignity and the natural law on which our rights rest.” The Spanish theologians answer: God, placing us before Himself, gave us the essence of His Mind, which is memory, understanding and will. This is what makes us free people and equally worthy. And that, of course, is all that today’s teaching wants to ignore.”
Many of these ideas were transferred to popular ideology through writers who, in Golden age reached the highest heights of genius imaginable. “Lope was a monster. And Quevedo. And all of them. They were people who liked this language, firmly established thanks to Nebriha. That’s why, Lurie says, “even Lope’s worst comedies can make a great page.” And remember one to present your idea. “Lope puts her daughter in front of her mother and makes her say, ‘Mom, I need to have myself. But in order to have myself, I need another self, which sees in me an equal to itself. “In this reflection, which has sublime depth, everything is already closed Hegelian dialectic of master and slaveand it’s all Kojève also“.
Asked about the state of education in Spain and why it’s so hard for us to justify our past, Luri is specific:Those who rule us are ignorant. But in this we always have two options: we can scourge ourselves for the fact that our history is not subject to our prejudices, or we can use what we have, and this is a lot and very good, in order to build the future“.