Antonio Escohotado facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Antonio Escohotado
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Escohotado in 2014
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| Born |
Antonio Escohotado Espinosa
5 July 1941 |
| Died | 21 November 2021 (aged 80) Ibiza, Spain
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| Era | 20th-century philosophy Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Continental philosophy Post-Hegelianism Liberalism Post-Marxism (early) |
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Main interests
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Liberalism, metaphysics, culture, ethics, freedom, history of communism, sociology, politics, dialectic, Marxism, fractal, history of commerce, political philosophy, history of slavery, law |
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Influences
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Antonio Escohotado Espinosa (born July 5, 1941 – died November 21, 2021) was a Spanish philosopher, lawyer, writer, and university professor. His work mainly focused on law, philosophy, and how society works. However, he also explored many other subjects.
Contents
Early Years
From Brazil to Spain
Antonio Escohotado's family had a long history in Spain. His great-grandfather, Vicente, was a mayor who supported the Glorious Revolution of 1868. Antonio's grandfather, also named Vicente, was one of the first in his town to study law. He also wrote books of poems and songs.
Antonio's father, Román, was a journalist. He directed Radio Nacional and worked as a press attaché in Brazil from 1946 to 1956.
When Antonio's family returned to Spain, he noticed a big difference. He had grown up in a lively, tropical place. Spain, however, was a very strict and serious society at that time. This change made him want to challenge authority and think for himself.
After his military service, Antonio decided to focus on his future. In 1964, he joined the Official Credit Institute (ICO). There, he managed business mergers for five years. At the same time, he was an assistant professor at the Complutense University. He also organized seminars on important philosophers like Kant and Hegel.
He began to publish his writings. He also taught classes at universities. This allowed him to connect with other thinkers and writers.
Initial Publications
Antonio Escohotado started publishing with the help of José Ortega Spottorno. This publisher had re-launched the Revista de Occidente, a famous magazine.
His law professor, Luis Legaz Lacambra, was very impressed with Antonio's academic work. Antonio wrote his doctoral thesis, The Moral Philosophy of the Young Hegel, in 1970. This work explored the ideas of the philosopher Hegel.
When his thesis was published as The Unhappy Conscience. Essay on the philosophy of religion of Hegel (1972), it caused some discussion. It even won a prize called the New Criticism prize. Escohotado later said this work showed him the difference between what someone intends and what actually happens.
Before this, he published Marcuse, utopia y razón (1968). This book looked at how the ideas of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud might fit with those of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Escohotado carefully studied the ideas of Herbert Marcuse, a thinker from the Frankfurt School. He found that some of Marcuse's ideas about Freud and Hegel were not quite right.
This book was one of the first in Spain about the Frankfurt School. It also became a sales success, selling out quickly. However, Escohotado did not want to reprint it. He felt he had written it too quickly. After these early works, Escohotado began to move away from ideas about perfect, imaginary societies.
Ibiza and Metaphysics
In 1970, Antonio Escohotado took a break from his government job. He moved to Ibiza to live a simpler life. He earned money by translating books.
Between 1970 and 1983, Escohotado translated over forty books. These included works by Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, and Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica.
In 1976, he used an inheritance to buy an old farmhouse. He turned it into a meeting place for friends, with instruments for live music. This place later became Amnesia, one of the most famous nightclubs in the world.
Soon after, he published Historias de familia, cuatro mitos sobre sexo y deber (1978). This was his first book on anthropology, the study of human societies. It looked at different family models and relationships from history and myths.
In 1980, Escohotado returned to teaching part-time. He became an assistant at the National University of Distance Education (UNED).
Later Years and Death
In his last five years, Antonio Escohotado worked closely with his third son, Antonio Jorge Escohotado Álvarez de Lorenzana. Jorge is a journalist and businessman. In 2017, Jorge started La Emboscadura Editorial. Their goal was to share Antonio Escohotado's ideas around the world. They published his books as e-books.
Jorge also managed Antonio's social media accounts. He opened profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube. His YouTube channel collected many videos of Antonio. These included interviews and talks he gave across Spain and Latin America. By the end of 2021, this channel had over 125,000 subscribers.
Jorge also edited the third volume of The Enemies of Commerce (2017). He also helped promote other works, like My Ibiza Privada (2019). The last book Antonio published was La forja de la gloria (2021). In this book, Antonio wrote about the history of Real Madrid from a philosophical point of view.
The publishing house's name, La Emboscadura, was inspired by a famous essay. It was named after The Forest Passage (1951) by Ernst Jünger. Antonio Escohotado believed this was one of the greatest books of the 20th century.
Ibiza was very important to Antonio Escohotado's life and ideas. In late 2019, he left his home in Madrid. He moved back to the Pityuses (Ibiza and Formentera). He wanted to spend his final years there.
During this time, journalist Ricardo F. Colmenero published Los penúltimos días de Escohotado (2021). This book was a collection of conversations with the philosopher. In it, Antonio openly said he had returned to Ibiza to await his death.
Even though he was retired, Antonio still had many visitors. These included fans, students, and famous people like singer Jorge Drexler and Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez. He also stayed active in the media. He continued to give interviews and appeared on some YouTube shows.
Antonio Escohotado Espinosa passed away on November 21, 2021, at the age of 80. He died in Ibiza, surrounded by his loved ones. He was buried in the civil cemetery of Santa Inés de Corona.
See also
In Spanish: Antonio Escohotado para niños
