José Gaos and José Medina Echavarría: The Intellectual Vocation

Abstract

The chapter analyzes the intellectual trajectory of two Spanish exiles the philosopher José Gaos and the sociologist José Medina Echevarría, since their departure from Spain, with the triumph of the Francoism until the end of their lives. Particularly, is interesting to contrast their reflections and actions around the link between their intellectual activity and political action as imperatives of fragmented lives by the experience of exile José Gaos was exiled in Mexico where he lived until his death (1969) developing a fruitful academic work at the Colegio de México and the National University. Contrary, for José Medina Echevarría Mexico was the first stop of a long exile that led him to Puerto Rico and later to Chile, where he was closely linked with CEPAL until his death in 1977.From writings, lectures and personal correspondence, we explore the divergent ways in which these intellectuals and scholars understood and assumed their role as society and cultural thinkers and critics of their time. To do this, we will review the philosophical foundations of humanism that led Gaos to a noticeable political skepticism, against Medina Echeverria, interested in finding connections among the knowledge obtained from Social Sciences and a political action aware of the solution of the most aggravating problems of his time.

‘José Gaos y José Medina Echavarría , la vocación intelectual’ (January–April 1986) Estudios Sociológicos de El Colegio de México , IV: 10, 11–27. In this version of the article we made corrections, added bibliographical details, and wrote a new fifth paragraph as well as an epilogue.