José Ferrater Mora

José María Ferrater Mora (Catalan: Josep Ferrater i Mora; 30

October 1912 – 30 January 1991) was a Catalan philosopher,
José Ferrater Mora
essayist and writer. He is considered the most prominent Catalan Josep Ferrater i Mora
philosopher of the 20th-century[1] and was the author of over 35
books, including a four-volume Diccionario de filosofía
(Dictionary of Philosophy, 1941) and Being and Death: An
Outline of Integrationist Philosophy (1962).[2] Subjects he
worked on include ontology, history of philosophy, metaphysics,
anthropology, the philosophy of history and culture,
epistemology, logic, philosophy of science, and ethics. He also
directed several films.[3]

Ferrater Mora was known for his inclusion of humans and non-
human animals within the same moral sphere, or continuum,
arguing that the difference was one of degree, not kind; the
Ferrater Mora Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics is named in his
honour.[2]

Born 30 October 1912

Contents Barcelona, Spain

Biography Died 30 January 1991

(aged 78)
Philosophy
Barcelona, Spain
Legacy
Education BA (1932) BPhil (1936)
Selected works University of Barcelona
Awards Spouse(s) Priscilla Cohn (m. 1980)
References Awards Grand Cross of the Civil
Further reading Order of Alfonso X, the Wise

External links (1984)

Creu de Sant Jordi (1984)
Prince of Asturias Award for
Biography Communication and
Humanities (1985)
Ferrater Mora was born in 1912, in Barcelona, Spain. He studied
at Santa Maria del Collell, then at the University of Barcelona, Era 20th-century philosophy
where he earned a BA, in 1932, and his BPhil, in 1936.[1] Institutions Bryn Mawr College

During the Spanish Civil War, he enlisted in the Republican Doctoral Priscilla Cohn
Army, serving as an intelligence clerk, before escaping the students
country in 1939. In exile, he spent three months in Paris, before Other notable Javier Muguerza
moving to and lecturing in Havana, Cuba and Santiago, Chile.[1] students
Language Spanish, Catalan,
After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, he moved to the English
United States, first residing in New York City.[4] In 1949, Main Applied ethics, animal
Ferrater Mora was hired by Bryn Mawr College to teach interests ethics, metaphysics
philosophy and Spanish literature, where he worked till his
retirement, in 1981.[1] He married Priscilla Cohn (his former Notable ideas Integrationism, monism
doctoral student) in 1980.[5] sui generis
Influences
Ferrater Mora died from a heart attack, on 30 January 1991,
Joaquín Xirau Palau, Miguel de
while visiting Barcelona.[6]
Unamuno, Eugeni d'Ors, Jose Ortega y
Gasset
Philosophy
Influenced
Ferrater Mora is the creator of a philosophical method he called Oscar Horta
integrationism, with which he sought to integrate opposite
systems of thought. He argued that irreducible concepts, which are the source of many disputes and divisions
in philosophy, do not denote existing realities in themselves but are "limit concepts"; that is to say, these
"opposite poles" do not exist absolutely. They exist only as trends or directions of reality and therefore are
complementary and are useful to talk about it.[7]

His philosophical work also focused on questions of an ontological nature. He called his ontological position
"monism sui generis", since it unites monism and pluralism; it is an emergentism in which the elements
assemble themselves by virtue of their properties or functions, or properties-functions. Each structure, although
it depends to exist on the elements that compose it, is not reducible to them because it acquires new properties-
functions that cannot be explained based on those of the element. The structure also becomes an element for a
new structure. Self-assembly begins from the physical level to the point where structures acquire more
complex properties-functions and of a different order to give rise to a new biological level, and thus the
continuum progresses until reaching the social and then the cultural level. It is a continuum that does not break
and that goes from matter to reason.[8]

He was one of the first philosophers to introduce applied ethics to the Spanish-speaking world and was a
staunch supporter of animal rights.[9]

His works combine a wide variety of influences, including the Spanish philosophers Miguel de Unamuno,
Eugeni d'Ors and José Ortega y Gasset and numerous other representatives of both continental and analytic
philosophy.

Legacy
In January 1991, Ferrater Mora made public the decision to donate his personal library to the University of
Girona. The collection consists of 7,255 books, 156 journal titles and correspondence, with 6,748 letters.[10]
The correspondence includes letters between Ferrater Mora and his friends, politicians and intellectuals of the
time. This collection also includes letters from his departure into exile in the 1940s (Cuba, Chile and the
United States), until his death in 1991. Other documents of interest include related writings, with politics and
culture sent by personalities of the time: Xavier Benguerel, Enrique Tierno Galván, Néstor Almendros and
Josep Trueta, among many others.[11]

Founded in 1989, the Ferrater Mora Chair in Contemporary Thought, regularly organizes seminars and lessons
on contemporary philosophy.[10]

Selected works
The following works are in Spanish, unless otherwise noted:

Dictionary of Philosophy (Mexico: Atlante, 1941)

Spain and Europe (Santiago de Chile: Cruz del Sur, 1942)
The Forms of Catalan Life (Santiago de Chile: Agrupació Patriòtica Catalana, 1944), in
Catalan and Spanish
Unamuno: Outline of a Philosophy (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1944)
Four Visions of Universal History (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1945)
Spanish Issues (Mexico: Colegio de México, 1945)
Variations on the Spirit (Buenos Aires: South American, 1945)
The Irony, the Death and the Admiration (Santiago de Chile: Cruz del Sur, 1946)
The Meaning of Death (Buenos Aires: South American, 1947)
The Book of Meaning (Santiago de Chile: Pi de les Tres Branques, 1948), in Catalan
Hellenism and Christianity (Santiago de Chile: University of Chile, 1949)
The Man at the Crossroads (Buenos Aires: South American, 1952)
Disputed Questions: Essays on Philosophy (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1955)
Mathematical Logic (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1955), co-authored with Hugues
Leblanc
Ortega y Gasset: An Outline of His Philosophy (London: Bowes and New Haven: Yale
University, 1957), in English
What Is Logic (Buenos Aires: Columba, 1957)
Philosophy in Today's World (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1959)
Being and Death: Outline of Integrationist Philosophy (Madrid: Aguilar, 1962)
Three Worlds: Catalonia, Spain, Europe (Barcelona and Buenos Aires: EDHASA, 1963)
Being and Meaning (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1967)
Inquiries About Language (Madrid: Alianza, 1970)
Words and Men (Barcelona: 62, 1970), in Catalan
Man and His Environment and Other Essays (Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno, 1971)
Shift in Philosophy (Madrid: Alianza, 1974)
Cinema Without Philosophies (Madrid: Esti-Arte, 1974)
From Matter to Reason (Madrid: Alianza, 1979)
Seven Capital Stories (Barcelona: Planeta, 1979)
Applied Ethics: From Abortion to Violence (Madrid: Alianza, 1981), co-authored with Priscilla
Cohn
Claudia, My Claudia (Madrid: Alianza, 1982)
The World of the Writer (Barcelona: Crítica, 1983)
Ways of Doing Philosophy (Barcelona: Crítica, 1985)
Voltaire in New York (Madrid: Alianza, 1985)
Foundations of Philosophy (Madrid: Alianza, 1985)
Made in Corona (Madrid: Alianza, 1986)
Window to the World (Barcelona: Crítica, 1986)
Dictionary of Great Philosophers 2 (Madrid: Alianza, 1986)
The Truth Game (Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1988)
Return from Hell (Barcelona: Anthropos, 1989)
Miss Goldie (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1991)
Women on the Verge of Legend (Barcelona: Círculo de readers, 1991)
 Butterflies and Superstrings: Dictionary for Our Time (Barcelona: Peninsula, 1994)

Awards
Ferrater Mora received honorary degrees from the following universities: the Autonomous
University of Barcelona (Spain, 1979), the University of the Republic (Uruguay, 1983), the
National University of Tucumán (Argentina, 1983), the National University of Colombia (1983),
the National University of Distance Education (Spain, 1986), the National University of Salta
(Argentina, 1986), the National University of Cuyo (Argentina, 1988), the University of
Barcelona (1988) and the University of Santiago de Compostela (posthumous; Spain,
1991).[12]
In 1982, he was awarded the Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.[13]
In 1984, he was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Grand
Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise.[13]
In 1985, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.[13]
In addition to being a numerus clausus member of the International Institute of Philosophy and
various academic societies, he belonged to the North American Academy of the Spanish
Language.[12]

References
1. Shook, John R., ed. (2005). "Ferrater Mora, José María". Dictionary of Modern American
Philosophers (https://books.google.com/books?id=Ijpj1tB3Qr0C). London: A & C Black.
pp. 766–768. ISBN 978-1-84371-037-0.
2. "José Ferrater Mora" (https://www.oxfordanimalethics.com/about-the-centre/jose-ferrater-mora/).
Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
3. "The Movie Maker: A Brief History and Analysis of Ferrater Mora's Films" (http://www.ferratermo
ra.org/move_history.html). Ferrater Mora. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
4. Mora, Jose Ferrater (2003). Terricabras, J. M. (ed.). Three Spanish Philosophers: Unamuno,
Ortega, Ferrater Mora (https://books.google.com/books?id=sB1-zb4o2s4C). Albany, New York:
SUNY Press. pp. 257–258. ISBN 978-0-7914-5714-6.
5. Cook, Bonnie L. (2 July 2019). "Priscilla T. Neuman Cohn Ferrater Mora, 85, heiress who
became philosophy professor, animal-rights activist" (https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/priscil
la-cohn-jose-ferrater-mora-professor-heiress-publicker-fortune-animal-activist-20190702.html).
The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
6. "Jose F. Mora, 78, Dies; Professor of Philosophy" (https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/02/obituari
es/jose-f-mora-78-dies-professor-of-philosophy.html). The New York Times. 2 February 1991.
ISSN 0362-4331 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved 24 June 2020.
7. Needleman, Jacob (1967). "Being and Death: An Outline of Integrationist Philosophy (review)"
(http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_philosophy/v005/5.3ne
edleman.pdf) (PDF). Journal of the History of Philosophy. 5 (3): 309–311.
doi:10.1353/hph.2008.1359 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fhph.2008.1359). ISSN 1538-4586 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/issn/1538-4586).
8. Maestre, Begoña Román (2014). "Oscar Horta, La filosofia moral de Josep Ferrater Mora
Documenta Universitària, Girona, 2008" (https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=504
4169). Journal of catalan intellectual history: Revista d'història de la filosofia catalana (7–8):
163–166. ISSN 2014-1564 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2014-1564).
9. Horta, Óscar (2008). La filosofía moral de J. Ferrater Mora. Girona: Documenta Universitaria.
10. "Josep Ferrater Mora" (https://fonsespecials.udg.edu/josep-ferrater-mora/). Universitat of Girona
(in Catalan). Retrieved 24 June 2020.
11. "Epistolari del Llegat Ferrater Mora" (http://mdc.csuc.cat/cdm/landingpage/collection/fmora).
University of Girona. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
12. "Awards, Honors, Distinctions and Decorations" (http://www.ferratermora.org/biog_accolades_
awards.html). Ferrater Mora. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
13. "José Ferrater Mora" (http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/9584/jose-ferrater-mora). Real Academia de
la Historia (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 June 2020.

Further reading
Horta, Óscar. La filosofía moral de J. Ferrater Mora. Documenta Universitaria, Girona, 2008.

External links
Works by José Ferrater Mora (https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Ferrater%
20Mora%2C%20Jose%CC%81%22) at Internet Archive
Josep Ferrater Mora Foundation (http://www.ferratermora.org/)
Ferrater Mora Collection (University of Girona Library) (http://www.udg.edu/fonsespecialsbibliot
eca/FerraterMora)
Ferrater Mora Correspondence in the University of Girona DUGi Repository (http://dugifonsesp
ecials.udg.edu/handle/10256.2/2)
Los derechos de los animales (http://www.ferratermora.org/spec_etica_section.html) ("Animal
rights"; the first essay on animal rights published in Spain)

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