Background
Xirau, Joaquim was born in 1894 in Figueras, Spain.
Xirau, Joaquim was born in 1894 in Figueras, Spain.
University of Barcelona (Licenciado 1917).
Professor at Salamanca (1927) and Barcelona (1928). Taught at Cambridge, 1929. Dean of Faculty of Letters, Barcelona (1933).
Professor at the Casa de España and UNAM, 1939. Influenced, among others, Ferrater Mora.
From his extensive studies in the history of Western philosophy, Xirau derived the belief that there is at the heart of modern thought a pernicious rupture between being and value, with the latter being relegated to the status of the subjective or regarded in some degree less ‘real’ than being. This rupture he attributed to the influence of positive science, with its tendencies to intellectualism. mechanism and reductionism. Xirau argued that positive science has its limits, and is entirely inadequate to deal with matters of the spirit. He set out to restore value to its rightful place in the scheme of things, relying not a little on the techniques of phenomenology in general and Scheler in particular. The analysis of perception common in positivist philosophies Xirau regarded as importantly incomplete. Ratiocination on sense data is not the only high road to truth, and is indeed only partially revelatory of being-as-is. There is another and richer mode of perception, which springs from the attitude to the world Xirau calls love. By this he does not mean a romantic, personal attachment but a true openness to the plenitude of being, an attitude to all there is which manifests itself as a superabundance of spiritual life and accurate perception of the value of things and experiences. Loving perception penetrates to being-as-is, and what is revealed is a reality with two co-ultimate facets, namely being and value. By comparison, the mode of perception which underlies utilitarian, pragmatist and relativist theories of truth is partial. Truth is to be attained not via science, but via love.