A respectable Spanish philosopher? From Seneca's canon to sarcasm

The awkward question: is there a respectable Spanish philosopher left?

The question has come up trinc a clash between Gustavo Bueno, José Antonio Marina and the memory of Aranguren. The answer circulating most is not a single name, but a canon of fourteen names running from Seneca to Zubiri that leaves out almost everyone still living.

The historical canon endures

The list: Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Saint Isidore of Seville, Ramon Llull, Luis Vives, Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto, Francisco Suárez, Juan de Mariana, Gregorio Mayans, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, Eugenio d'Ors, José Ortega y Gasset and Javier Zubiri. All of them meet the requirement of having left behind a body of work, although most carry the label of thinkers tied to the Church or the power structures of their time. Less orthodox names are not missing either, such as Andalusian Averroism: this year marks nine centuries since the birth of Averroes, whom some claim as the first "Spanish" philosopher and who never held a chair at a Castilian university.

Modern disrepute

Faced with that solemnity, some respond with sarcasm and cite Francisco Franco as the nation's great philosopher, while others deny that anyone who does not generate new ideas deserves the title. The jab is nothing new: Spanish philosophy has always oscillated between scholasticism and the pamphlet. Among the names proposed are Jesús G. Maestro, Antonio Vallejo-Nájera and Rafael Gambra, all of them uncomfortable figures. And suspicion remains about Gustavo Bueno himself, whom some recall was not especially anti-Franco, while Aranguren bears the reproach of his own past. Perhaps that is why the million-dollar question remains whether what is truly respectable is the philosopher, or the silence of those who name him.