Nicolás Gómez Dávila
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Nicolás Gómez Dávila (; 18 May 1913 – 17 May 1994) was a Colombian
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
. Gómez Dávila's fame began to spread only in the last few years before his death, particularly by way of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
translations of his works. He was one of the most radical critics of
modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...
whose work consists almost entirely of
aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...
s which he called "''escolios''" ("
scholia Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of th ...
" or "glosses").


Biography

Gómez Dávila was a Colombian scholar who spent most of his life in the circle of his friends and within the confines of his library. He belonged to the upper circles of Colombian society and was educated in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. Due to severe
pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
, he spent about two years at home where he was taught by private teachers and developed a lifelong love of
classical literature Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
. He never, however, attended a university. In the 1930s he went back from Paris to Colombia, never to visit Europe again, except for a six-month stay with his wife in 1948. He built up an immense library containing more than 30,000 volumes around which his literary existence centred. In 1948 he helped found the University of The Andes in Bogotá. In 1954, Gómez Dávila's first volume of works was published by his brother, a compilation of notes and aphorisms under the title ''Notas I'' – the second volume of which never appeared. The book remained virtually unknown because only 100 copies were printed and these were presented as gifts to his friends. In 1959, he followed this with a small book of essays under the title of ''Textos I'' (again, no second volume was published). These essays develop basic concepts of his philosophical anthropology as well as his philosophy of history, often in literary language full of metaphors. In these essays, he first voices his intention to create a "reactionary patchwork" because reality, he said, cannot be represented in a philosophical system. After the collapse of the military dictatorship in 1958 Gómez Dávila was offered the post of chief advisor to the state president which he rejected as he did with respect to later offers, in 1974, to become ambassador in London. Though he supported the later president
Alberto Lleras Camargo Alberto Lleras Camargo (3 July 1906 – 4 January 1990) was the 20th President of Colombia (1958–1962), and the 1st Secretary General of the Organization of American States (1948–1954). A journalist and liberal party politician, he also ser ...
's role in bringing down the dictatorship, he refrained from any political activity himself, a decision he had already reached early on in his practice as a writer. From this decision resulted his strong criticism not only of left-wing but also of right-wing and conservative political practices, even though his explicitly reactionary principles show some similarities to conservative viewpoints. His skeptical anthropology was based on a close study of
Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...
and
Jacob Burckhardt Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. Sigfri ...
as well as his affirmation of hierarchical structures of order on society, state and church. Gómez Dávila emphatically criticised the concept of the sovereignty of the people as an illegitimate divinisation of man and a rejection of the sovereignty of
God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
. He was likewise deeply critical of the
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...
which he saw as a problematic adaptation to the world. He particularly deplored the destruction of the Latin liturgy in the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of the council. Similar to
Juan Donoso Cortés Juan Donoso Cortés, marqués de Valdegamas (6 May 1809 – 3 May 1853) was a Spanish counter-revolutionary author, diplomat, politician, and Catholic political theologian. Biography Early life Cortés was born at Valle de la Serena (Extrem ...
, Gómez Dávila believed that all political errors ultimately resulted from theological errors. That is why his thought can be described as a form of
political theology Political theology is a term which has been used in discussion of the ways in which theological concepts or ways of thinking relate to politics. The term ''political theology'' is often used to denote religious thought about political principled qu ...
. The modern ideologies such as
liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
,
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
, and
socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
, are the main targets of Gómez Dávila's criticism, because the world influenced by these ideologies appeared to him decadent and corrupt. Gómez Dávila discussed a vast range of topics,
philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
and
theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
questions, problems of
literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
,
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
, and
aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
,
philosophy of history Philosophy of history is the philosophical study of history and its discipline. The term was coined by French philosopher Voltaire. In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between ''speculative'' philosophy of history and ''crit ...
and the writing of history. He employed a
literary method A narrative technique (known for literary fictional narratives as a literary technique, literary device, or fictional device) is any of several specific methods the creator of a narrative uses to convey what they want —in other words, a stra ...
of succinct statements with a great sensibility for matters of style and tone. The literary method he developed is the gloss, the
scholion Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of t ...
, which he used to comment on the world, particularly in the five volumes of ''Escolios a un texto implícito'' (1977; 1986; 1992) that he published from the seventies to the nineties. He created "the
reactionary In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...
" as his unmistakable literary mask and made it into a distinctive type of thinking about the modern world as such. In his later work he attempted to define the "reactionary" with which he identified in an affirmative way by locating him somewhere beyond the traditional position of left and right. On the basis of a Catholic traditionalism influenced by the intellectual probity of
Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
and others he criticized modernity and saw his work as that of a partisan for a "truth that will not die". Gómez Dávila made no attempts to make his writings widely known. Only by way of German (and later Italian as well as French and Polish) translation beginning in the late eighties did Gómez Dávila's ideas begin to be read among poets and philosophers such as Robert Spaemann,
Martin Mosebach Martin Mosebach (born 31 July 1951, in Frankfurt am Main) is a German writer. Biography He has published novels, stories, and collections of poems, written scripts for several films, opera libretti, theatre and radio plays. His first major non- ...
,
Botho Strauss Botho Strauß (; born 2 December 1944) is a German playwright, novelist and essayist. Biography Botho Strauß's father was a chemist. After finishing his secondary education, Strauß studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Colo ...
,
Reinhart Maurer Reinhart Klemens Maurer (born 1935) is a philosopher and professor from Xanten, Germany. Maurer studied philosophy, German and English at the universities of University of Münster, Münster, University of Kiel, Kiel and University of Vienna, Vien ...
, Rolf Schilling,
Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...
, Franco Volpi,
Asfa-Wossen Asserate ''Le'ul Ras'' (Prince) Dr Asfa-Wossen Asserate (Amharic: አስፋ ወሰን ዓሥራተ; born 31 October 1948, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian-German political analyst and consultant for African and Middle-Eastern Affairs and best-se ...
and Krzysztof Urbanek.


Bibliography

*''Escolios a Un Texto Implicito: Obra Completa''. Nicolas Gomez Davila, Franco Volpi. July 2006. Hardcover, 408 pages. Villegas Editores. , *''Notas I'', Mexico 1954 (new edition Bogotá 2003). *''Textos I'', Bogotá 1959 (new edition Bogotá 2002). *''Escolios a un texto implícito'', 2 volumes, Bogotá 1977. *''Nuevos escolios a un texto implícito'', 2 volumes, Bogotá 1986. *''De iure'', in: Revista del Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Senora del Rosario 81. Jg., Nr. 542 (April–June 1988), p. 67–85. *''https://www.academia.edu/34702433/De_Iure_-_Nicol%C3%A1s_G%C3%B3mez_D%C3%A1vila_Bilingual_edition_ De iure, Bilingual Edition'', translated by Tomás Molina, in: Revista del Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Senora del Rosario Vl 3., Nr. 39 (September 2017). *''Sucesivos escolios a un texto implícito'', Santafé de Bogotá 1992 (new edition Barcelona 2002). *
El reaccionario auténtico
', in: Revista de la Universidad de Antioquia, Nr. 240 (April–June 1995), p. 16–19. *''Escolios a un texto implícito. Selección'', Bogotá 2001. *''Alle origini del mondo'', edited by Antonio Lombardi, Villasanta (MB): Limina Mentis, 2013, Translation of Textos I (V) (1959). *''Scholia to an Implicit Text. Bilingual Selected Edition.'' Prologue by Till Kinzel. Villegas Editores, Bogotá 2013,


Notes


Further reading

*AA.VV. ''Entre Fragmentos. Interpretaciones gomezdavilianas''. Alfredo Abad (Comp.) Casa de Asterión Ediciones, Pereira, 2017. *Alfredo Abad

'. Postergraph, Pereira, 2008 *Alfredo Abad

' Gómez Dávila y las raíces gnósticas de la modernidad en Revista Ideas y Valores Universidad Nacional No. 142 Bogotá *''Nicolás Gómez Dávila Crítica e Interpretación'', e
Revista de Filosofía Paradoxa No. 14
Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, 2007. *Hernán D. Caro:
El buen odioso – La apoteósis alemana de Nicolás Gómez Dávila
', en: Revista Arcadia, enero 2008. *Sergio Knipe: "Anthropotheism: Nicolás Gómez Dávila on Democracy", in: David J. Wingfield (ed.), ''The Initiate: Journal of Traditional Studies'', Issue One, Spring 2008. * José Miguel Oviedo: ''Breve historia del ensayo hispanoamericano'', Madrid 1981, pp. 150–151. *
Reinhart Maurer Reinhart Klemens Maurer (born 1935) is a philosopher and professor from Xanten, Germany. Maurer studied philosophy, German and English at the universities of University of Münster, Münster, University of Kiel, Kiel and University of Vienna, Vien ...
: ''Reaktionäre Postmoderne – Zu Nicolás Gómez Dávila'', in: J. Albertz (ed.): ''Aufklärung und Postmoderne – 200 Jahre nach der französischen Revolution das Ende aller Aufklärung?'', Berlin 1991, pp. 139–50. *Óscar Torres Duque: ''Nicolás Gómez Dávila: la pasión del anacronismo'', in: Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico 32, No. 40 (1995), pp. 31–49. *Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda: ''Nicolás Gómez Dávila, un pensador solitario'', in: Cobo Borda: ''Desocupado lector'', Bogotá 1996, pp. 94–96. * Franco Volpi: ''Un angelo prigioniero nel tempo'', in: Nicolás Gómez Dávila: ''In margine a un testo implicito'', Milano 2001, pp. 159–83. *Till Kinzel: ''Vom Sinn des reaktionären Denkens. Zu Nicolás Gómez Dávilas Kulturkritik'', in: Philosophisches Jahrbuch 1/2002, pp. 175–85. *Till Kinzel: ''Nicolás Gómez Dávila. Parteigänger verlorener Sachen'', Schnellroda 2003, ²2005, ³2006. *Philippe Billé (ed.): ''Studia Daviliana. Études sur N. G. D.'', La Croix-Comtesse 2003. *Reinhart Maurer: ''Ausnahmslose Gleichheit?'', in: ''Die Ausnahme denken (FS Kodalle)'', volume 2, ed. by C. Dierksmeier, Würzburg 2003, pp. 165–76. *
Vittorio Hösle Vittorio Hösle (; born 25 June 1960) is an Italian-born German philosopher. He has authored works including ''Hegels System'' (1987), ''Moral und Politik'' (1997, trans. as ''Morals and Politics'', 2004), and ''Der philosophische Dialog'' (2006) ...
: ''Variationen, Korollarien und Gegenaphorismen zum ersten Band der „Escolios a un texto implícito“ von Nicolás Gómez Dávila'', in: ''Die Ausnahme denken'', 2003, pp. 149–63. *Till Kinzel: ''Ein kolumbianischer Guerillero der Literatur. N. G. D.s Ästhetik des Widerstands'', in
Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift
1/2004, pp. 87–107. * Virgil Nemoianu: ''Nicolás Gómez Dávila: Parteigänger verlorener Sachen (review)'', in: MLN – Volume 119, Number 5, December 2004 (Comparative Literature Issue), pp. 1110–1115. *Till Kinzel: ''Denken als Guerillakampf gegen die Moderne'', in https://web.archive.org/web/20070731214655/http://www.aphorismus.net/beitrag17.html *''Prawdziwy reakcjonista. Nicolásowi Gómezowi Dávili w stulecie urodzin'', Krzysztof Urbanek ed. Furta Sacra, Warszawa 2013. *''Oczyszczenie inteligencji. Nicolás Gómez Dávila – myśliciel współczesny?'', Krzysztof Urbanek ed. Furta Sacra, Warszawa 2010. *''Między sceptycyzmem a wiarą. Nicolás Gómez Dávila i jego dzieło'', Bogna J. Obidzińska, Krzysztof Urbanek ed., red. Furta Sacra, Warszawa 2008. *Krzysztof Urbanek, „En torno a Nicolás Gómez Dávila”, Paradoxa. Revista de Filosofía, Nr 14, Diciembre de 2007 (Colombia). *Krzysztof Urbanek, „Nicolás Gómez Dávila – myśliciel świadomie niekonserwatywny”, Cywilizacja, Nr 23/2007. *Krzysztof Urbanek, „EX OCCIDENTE LUX II”, :Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Następne scholia do tekstu implicite, tłum. Krzysztof Urbanek, Wydawnictwo Furta Sacra, Warszawa 2008. *Krzysztof Urbanek, „Nicolás Gómez Dávila i demokracja”, Pro Fide Rege et Lege, 1/2007. *Krzysztof Urbanek, „Nicolás Gómez Dávila – myśliciel nieznany”, :Z myśli hiszpańskiej i iberoamerykańskiej. Filozofia – literatura – mistyka, Dorota Sepczyńska, Mieczysław Jagłowski ed., red. Instytut Cervantesa w Warszawie, Instytut Filozofii UWM w Olsztynie, Katedra UNESCO UWM w Olsztynie, Wydział Socjologii i Pedagogiki WSIiE TWP w Olsztynie, Olsztyn 2006. *Till Kinzel: ''Randbemerkungen zu Nicolás Gómez Dávila als Lehrer des Lesens.'' In: ''Einfache Formen und kleine Literatur(en). Für Hinrich Hudde zum 65. GEburtstag.'' Ed. Michaela Weiß / Frauke Bayer, Heidelberg: Winter, 2010, pp. 77–88. *Enver J. Torregroza Lara,
Antropología y fenomenología en Nicolás Gómez Dávila
' In: ''Pensamiento. Revista de Investigación e Información Filosófica'', Vol. 76, No. 291, p. 1153-1171.


External links

*

* ttp://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/davila-Gilleland.pdf The Aphorisms of Nicolas Gomez-Davila
Gómez Dávila's Website in Facebook

Don Colacho's Aphorisms PDF

Don Colacho's Aphorisms, PDF

Don Colacho's Aphorisms, DOCX


{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez Davila, Nicolas 1913 births 1994 deaths Aphorists Colombian expatriates in France Colombian male writers Colombian Roman Catholics People from Bogotá Catholic philosophers Roman Catholic writers 20th-century Colombian philosophers