Juan Manuel Burgos

Juan Manuel Burgos Velasco (born 1961, Valladolid, Spain) is a Spanish Personalist philosopher. He has a PhD in physics, (Barcelona, 1988) and a PhD in philosophy (Rome, 1992). He is professor at the University San Pablo CEU (Madrid), and at the John Paul II Institute (Madrid), member of the Jaques Maritain International Institute, and distinguished guest professor at Galileo University (2007, Guatemala). In 2007, he became an honorary professor at the Institute of Family Sciences (Guatemala) for his contribution to family sciences through his anthropology studies. From his active dedication to the investigation and diffusion of Personalist philosophy, Burgos has been a guest professor at universities in Rome, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala and Colombia. He is founder and actual president of the Spanish Association of Personalism (Asociación Española de Personalismo , AEP), an institution dedicated to develop and promote personalism through publications , seminaries and international congresses on personalist thinkers such as Karol Wojtyła(2006 ) and Julián Marías (2008 ). The editor of two philosophy collections (Palabra Editorials, Madrid Spain) has also published numerous books and articles on specialized magazines on diverse topics on Personalism, Philosophical Anthropology, Bioethics and sociology of the family.

Thought

Burgos's philosophy, takes off from the originality and intellectual weight of Personalism with names like Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Wojtyła, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Scheler, Marías, Guardini, Nedoncelle, Gabriel Marcel, etc. His investigation focuses on three main subjects:

  • He has identified the main authors of this philosophy (El personalismo, 2003),
  • He has developed specific studies on Maritain (Para comprender a Jacques Maritain, 2006), Wojtyła (La filosofia personalista de Karol Wojtyła, 2007) and Marías (El vuelo del alción, 2009) and,
  • He has also synthesized the intellectual keys of Personalism, establishing a framework or matrix that grasps the unity of this stream of thought to enable its progress and development (Hacia una definición de la filosofía personalista, 2006).

The result of his synthesis labor is presented in two major phases:
In the first one, he states the elements that place personalism within the Realistic Classical philosophy. In his analysis, this standing point supposes six basic principles:

  • The world is viewed from an ontological perspective,
  • Man has the objective capability to know the truth,
  • The person is intrinsically free,
  • There is a human nature,
  • There is an ethical dimension in men, and,
  • Men are essentially religious beings.

In the second phase, Burgos has identified the key elements that define and distinguish Personalism as an original and new philosophy within this tradition. Those key elements are:

  • There is a radical distinction between things and persons. This is a Kantian standing point from which can be infer that people has to be analyzed with specific philosophical categories, and not with categories elaborated for things.
  • Affectivity has a radical importance. In Personalism, affectivity is an independent and original dimension of the person that includes a spiritual center, as intellect and freedom, usually identified with the heart.
  • Interpersonal and family relationships have a decisive importance in the configuration of personal identity.
  • Moral and religious values have absolute priority. Personalism separates from Aristotelian tradition because it considers that the main characteristic in a person is not intelligence, but will and the heart. This implies a priority of the act, which enables to give a philosophical relevance to love.
  • Corporeity. Contrary to a traditional forgetfulness of the body, Personalism recovers corporeity as an essential dimension, which, beyond the somatic aspect, also has a subjective and personal character.
  • Sexual dimorphism, man-woman. There are two ways of being a person: man and woman. The person is a dual reality and so forth, the sexual character affects the corporal, affective and spiritual dimensions.
  • The person is a social and communitarian subject. Personalism synthesizes the relationship person-society, by establishing the ontological priority of the person over any collectivity, but counterbalanced with the accountability of solidarity by the person.
  • Personalist philosophers understand philosophy as a means of interaction with cultural and social reality; that is to say, philosophy isn't consider as a mere academic exercise, but a way to transform society.
  • By their transcendent vision of life, personalists look for inspiration in their cultural tradition (Christian or Jewish) which allows them, always maintaining a rational perspective, not to dissociate artificially their existence as a person, from their existence as philosophers.
  • Personalism chooses a moderately positive valuation of Modern philosophy, although it understands that it has generated relevant errors, it also considers that has undeniably contributed to the anthropological wealth with elements like the subjectivity, the self, consciousness or the vindication of freedom.

With these premises as foundation, Burgos has developed a personalist anthropology (Antropología: una gíia para la existencia, 2003) that incorporates the latter characteristics developing and integrating them organically on a fundamental anthropological concept: the one of person. According to Burgos, this is the main aspect by which Personalism distinguishes from other Classical anthropologies because those take their fundamental element in the concept of substance or of nature.

Now, Burgos is working in developing and his studies have become deeper on main elements in personalism as: the personalist method and analogy, the relationship of personalism and metaphysics, praxis (Reconstruir la persona, 2009) or on human nature (Repensar la naturaleza humana, 2007).

Published works
  • La inteligencia ética. La propuesta de Jacques Maritain, 1995, ISBN 3-906754-26-X.
  • El personalismo. Autores y temas de una filosofía nueva, 2000, (2ª ed. 2003) ISBN 84-8239-440-1.
  • Antropología: una guía para la existencia, 2003 (2ª ed. 2005), ISBN 84-8239-745-1.
  • Diagnóstico sobre la familia, 2004, ISBN 84-8239-848-2.
  • Para comprender a Jacques Maritain. Un ensayo histórico-crítico, 2006, ISBN 84-95334-96-8.
  • Hacia una definición de la filosofía personalista, (editor, en colaboración con José Luis Cañas y Urbano Ferrer), 2006, ISBN 84-8239-998-5.
  • La filosofía personalista de Karol Wojtyła, (editor), 2007, ISBN 978-84-9840-098-4.
  • Repensar la naturaleza humana, 2007, ISBN 978-84-8469-206-5.
  • El vuelo del alción, (editor en colaboración con José Luis Cañas), 2009, ISBN 978-84-8393-026-7.

References
  • The personalist method, J. M. Burgos, Una cuestión de método: el uso de la analogía en el personalismo y en el tomismo, 2007, Dialogo filosófico No. 68, ISSN 0213-1196, p.p. 251-268
  • Humane nature [Un concepto adecuado de «naturaleza humana» es clave contra la deriva relativista https://web.archive.org/web/20080628041716/http://www.zenit.org/article-25029?l=spanish] (entrevista a Juan Manuel Burgos), Zenit (5-10-2007). [8-6-2008]
  • Juan Manuel Burgos, president of Spanish Association of Personalism
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