An example of Spanish Materialism in XIX Century: the J. M. Guardia’s brief treatise “Conversation entre un médecin et un philosophe sur la science de l’homme”

Abstract

This research has been done in order to explain the philosophy of the Spanish thinker José Miguel Guardia, naturalized French. And, through him and his brief treatise “Conversation entre un médecin et un philosophe sur la science de l’homme”, to prove the reading made about Materialism. This controversial polemist’s intellectual position ranges from a deep knowledge classical culture to philosophical currents of thought of his time, just like Spencer, Comte or Littré. Guardia personifies a Positivism and Materialism of his own. At the same time his work pays tribute to the Spanish long tradition of ‘médicos-filósofos’, which had been started some centuries before by Huarte de San Juan. It is a work and a thought that informs us about an erudite, vigorous time which was fed with an enriched controversy.