Forgotten Little Books of Philosophy (2)

Una primera lección de filosofía (A First Lesson in Philosophy) (1926) by Eugeni d’Ors

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Andreu Navarra

The first point to address when examining this diminutive volume by Eugeni d’Ors—referred to by its author as a “notebook” in the introduction—is the nature of its creator. Before delving into the philosophical content, it is essential to understand the authorial identity behind this brief text. Secondly, having clarified the type of thinker d’Ors was (a matter far from trivial), we must consider his penchant for synthesis and miniaturisation, without which Una primera lección de filosofía cannot be fully appreciated.

First and foremost, this Eugenio d’Ors named on the cover is not Xènius. Indeed, one could argue that d’Ors had symbolically declared Xènius dead, as evidenced by the list of works he provides on the first page. None of the glossaries or novels from his Catalan period before 1920 are included; they have been excised. The catalogue begins with the lectures delivered in 1914 at the Residencia de Estudiantes and concludes by announcing Juliano el Apóstata, likely a book version of his 1924 essay La resurrección de Juliano el Apóstata, published in Revista de Occidente, issue number 16. This omission reflects a closing of circles. In 1914, d’Ors had sought to install his Glossary in the Ortega y Gasset-led journal España but failed due to financial disagreements. That same year, he attempted to resign from his Catalan positions, but his resignation was declined by Prat de la Riba.

By 1926, however, d’Ors had re-established himself in Castilian intellectual circles, though he would depart for Paris within a year. This tension with Barcelona surfaces in the preface to A First Lesson in Philosophy, where he notes: “La lección cuyo texto va a leerse ha sido, efectivamente, dada por su autor, como introducción a un Curso sistemático de Filosofía, profesado dos veces, una en el Seminario de Filosofía de Barcelona, que aquet (sic) dirigió entre los años 1917 y 1921 (fecha en que esta institución universitaria se vio deshecha por la reacción política a la sazón imperante en Cataluña) y luego en la Universidad de Córdoba (República Argentina), por invitación de sus autoridades académicas”¹.  Here, d’Ors seeks to affirm the construction of his philosophical system, detailed schematically in the notebook’s final pages, while also documenting the fragments and isolated lectures published in Catalonia and Argentina before 1926.

But who is speaking? As Víctor Pérez i Flores noted in his edition of Els fenòmens de l’atenció—a 1909 philosophical psychology course delivered at the Estudis Universitaris Catalans by d’Ors—the author explicitly sought to differentiate the style and methods employed (p. 22). It is not merely that Xènius ceased to exist around 1920; rather, the d’Ors of the Barcelona courses is fundamentally the same as the systematic philosopher evident in his later works, which began to take shape in the notebooks of this period. The d’Ors who speaks to us in 1926 is also distinct from “Un ingenio de esta Corte” (A Wit of This Court), the persona he used to sign his essays during those years.

D’Ors’ thinking resonates with Ortega y Gasset’s The Modern Theme (1923). Like Ortega, d’Ors emphasises the dialogical nature of thought, which culminates in his later work, El Secreto de la Filosofia (1947):

“Pronto sabremos que la fuente filosófica por excelencia es el diálogo; que no hay pensamiento sin diálogo íntimo; que Diálogo y Dialéctica, ya emparentados estrechamente por la etimología, se enlazan, más estrechamente aún, para la reflexión profunda. (…) Si  nosotros, con nuestras reuniones, lográsemos alcanzar aquel éxito que nuestro deseo ambiciona; si nuevos aspectos de la verdad se abrieran a nosotros, y pudiésemos lúcidamente penetrar en el fondo de los problemas, y fuésemos lo bastantemente dichosos para arrancar de allí soluciones suficientes; si estas soluciones se enlazaran unas con otras, hasta formar un conjunto bien trabado, que ofreciera, en su orden y armonía, alguna garantía de solidez, esto sería señal de que, a través del grato desfile de nuestras veladas amistosas y estudiosas, algo de orden superior había venido a habitar entre nosotros y a manifestarse entre nosotros” (págs. 9 y 10)².

D’Ors’ objective was twofold: to overcome the “pessimistic” theories of scepticism and positivism. For d’Ors, the act of dialogue enables thought, and shared thought paves the way for a reliable system. This dialogical process surpasses idealism and empiricism, echoing Ortega’s multiperspectivism, though expressed in entirely different terminology and with a distinctly rationalist objective: “Algo, en verdad, distinto de mi mente, y también de la mente de cada una de las personas de mi auditorio, y aun de la suma de todas nuestras mentes juntas. Más bien, multiplicación de ellas, activa, superadora síntesis de ellas; mente colectiva; que, en este caso, únicamente en este caso, merecerá el nombre de Espíritu”³ (p. 10).

This performative philosophy, directly addressing a specific audience, recalls the traditions of Socrates and Goethe. Socrates is cited because he expressed himself through spontaneous dialogues (D’Ors must have intuitively sensed that Plato’s dialogues were but a shadow of what should have been achieved through dialogue in Athens, both before and after the founding of the Academy); Goethe is mentioned because he reached his philosophical peak in conversations with Eckermann. The Phenomenology of Spirit, another “sterile monologue,” was also considered by d’Ors a “failure,” as it precisely obstructed the creation of a “higher order” or System (p. 49).

D’Ors had an enduring affection for small books, compact forms, and the art of synthesis. His Gnómica (1941) exemplifies this affinity with its collection of aphorisms and pearls of wisdom. His penchant reached its zenith in 1938 with The History of the World in 500 Words, a Swiss-published work born of a wager. Una primera lección de filosofía, a mere 50 pages of modest dimensions, belongs to the Cuadernos de Ciencia y Cultura (Science and Culture Notebooks) series by La Lectura. The series was quite diverse: the second volume published in it was Gordos y flacos. Estado actual del problema de la patología del peso humano by Gregorio Marañón. D’Ors’ volume was the third title, a book that set out to restore the great metaphysical systems of the 17th century in just 50 pages, each no more than the size of a small hand.

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¹ The lecture presented here was delivered as an introduction to a systematic course on Philosophy, which I taught twice—first at the Philosophy Seminar of Barcelona, an institution I directed from 1917 to 1921 (when it was dismantled by the prevailing political reaction in Catalonia), and later at the University of Córdoba (Argentina) at the invitation of its academic authorities.

² Soon we shall know that the quintessential source of philosophy is dialogue; that there is no thought without intimate dialogue; that Dialogue and Dialectics, already closely related etymologically, are even more intimately linked in profound reflection… If we, through our gatherings, were to achieve the success we desire—if new aspects of truth were revealed to us, allowing us to lucidly probe the depths of problems and uncover sufficient solutions, linking them into a coherent and harmonious whole—then we would know that something of a higher order had come to dwell and manifest itself among us (pp. 9-10).

³ Something distinct from my mind, and from the minds of my audience members, and even from the sum of all our minds combined. Rather, a multiplication of them—an active, transcendent synthesis; a collective mind which, in this case, alone merits the name of Spirit.

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