José Gaos facts for kids

José Gaos (born December 26, 1900, in Gijón, Spain – died June 10, 1969, in Mexico City) was an important Spanish philosopher. He had to leave Spain during the Spanish Civil War and found a new home in Mexico. There, he became one of the most influential Mexican philosophers of the 20th century. He was also part of a group of thinkers known as the Madrid School.

Early Life and Education

José Gaos grew up in Valencia and Oviedo in Spain. He was the oldest of nine children. His siblings included the actress Lola Gaos and poets Alejandro and Vicente Gaos. José spent most of his early childhood living with his grandparents in Asturias.

When he was 15, he moved to Valencia to live with the rest of his family. That same year, he first learned about philosophy. He read a book on the history of philosophy by Jaime Balmes. Balmes' ideas about how philosophy changes over time greatly influenced Gaos' later work.

Gaos studied at the University of Valencia. Later, he moved to the University of Madrid. There, he earned both his bachelor's degree and his doctorate. His final paper for his doctorate looked at a topic called psychologism.

Becoming a Professor and Moving to Mexico

After finishing university, José Gaos became a philosophy professor. He taught in León, at the University of Zaragoza, and, after 1933, at the University of Madrid.

In 1938, during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Gaos had to leave Spain. He supported the republican side, which meant he was exiled. He moved to Mexico and started teaching as a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Gaos was influenced by many different philosophical ideas. These included neo-scholasticism, neo-Kantianism, and Edmund Husserl's phenomenology. He also learned from German philosophers like Martin Heidegger and Nicolai Hartmann. Most importantly, he was a student of the famous Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. Gaos was one of many philosophers who formed the Madrid School under Ortega. Other teachers who influenced Gaos were Manuel García Morente and Xavier Zubiri.

Translator of Important Works

José Gaos was also very good at translating German philosophy. He helped with many translation projects started by Ortega's School of Madrid. Gaos translated books into Spanish by many famous philosophers. These included Martin Heidegger (he did the first Spanish translation of Being and Time), John Dewey, Søren Kierkegaard, G. W. F. Hegel, Max Scheler, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Edmund Husserl.

One of Gaos's well-known students was Leopoldo Zea.

Today, Gaos's Collected Works (Obras completas) are published by UNAM in Mexico City. The special collection of his papers, known as the Gaos-Archive, is also located there.

Selected Publications

• The Philosophy of Maimonides (1940)
• Hispanic American Thought (1944)
• Two Human Exclusives: The Hand and Time (1945)
• Anthology of Thought in Spanish Language in the Contemporary Age (1945)
• Philosophy of Philosophy (1947)
• Method for Solving the Problems of Our Time (1950)
• Introduction to Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1951)
• About Mexican Philosophy (1952)
• Mexican Philosophy in Our Days (1954)
• Philosophy at the University (1956)
• Essays on Ortega y Gasset (1957)
• Professional Confessions (1958)
• Discourse on Philosophy (1959)
• Origins of Philosophy and Its History (1960)
• Contemporary Philosophy (1962)
• History of Our Idea of the World (1973)
• Philosophy of Technology (2022), a collection of Gaos' essays

See also

In Spanish: José Gaos para niños