Francisco Giner de los Rios: A Spanish Socrates

Carl Spadoni was Research Collections Librarian at the Mills Library, McMaster University, Hamilton.

Professor Emeritus in the Department of Hispanic Studies at McGill University, Solomon Lipp has written three previous books either published or distributed by Wilfrid Laurier University Press: Three Argentine Thinkers’ (1969), Three Chilean Thinkers’ (1975), and Leopoldo Zea (1980). His latest work is an intellectual portrait of the life and times of the Spanish educator Francisco Giner de los Rios (1839-1915). It would appear that this is the first study of Giner written in the English language.

In the second half of the nineteenth century Spanish universities and secondary schools required their teachers to sign loyalty oaths to both the monarch and the Catholic church. Giner was deprived of his lectureship and was imprisoned for protesting restrictions on academic freedom. After his release he established a non-political, non-religious school, the Institucion Libre de Enseñanza, which encouraged creativity and independent thought. Giner’s liberal opinions and exemplary life inspired a host of Spanish writers and thinkers, including Miguel de Unamuno and J. Ortega y Gasset. Indeed, it was de Unamuno who referred to Giner as “our Spanish Socrates.”

Lipp’s sympathetic account strikes a satisfying balance between a purely scholarly work and a popularization. He provides the reader with an excellent historical introduction to the political, cultural, and religious forces that governed nineteenth century Spain. His book also focuses on the enormous influence of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, whose philosophy was imported to Spain by Julián Sanz del Rio, Giner’s mentor. Rational, tolerant, and organic, Krausism was espoused by Giner in all its aspects and was vigorously opposed by Catholic reactionaries.

Approximately half of the book is devoted to an explanation of Krausism and Giner’s interpretation of it. The other half concerns Giner’s views of religion, literature, science, and psychology and his attempts to merge educational theory into practice. This book is both readable and informative. It will find a receptive audience in those who wish to know more about Spanish cultural life.