The García Morente’s Faculty of Philosophy and Letters

Abstract

One of the most relevant milestones in the field of Education achieved by the Second Spanish Republic was the School of “Filosofía y Letras” of the University of Madrid, led by its dean García Morente. This article primarily focuses on the “Sección de Filosofía” by analising the reasons behind its success. Among them, it is worth highlighting the presence of an extraordinary group of Faculty members (Zubiri, Gaos, Zambrano), intellectually guided by Ortega and wisely coordinated by Morente. Another crucial point was the organisation of teaching, which was clearly influenced by Morente, as it was the construction of the School’s new building and the encouragement of college life, with initiatives like the voyage through the Mediterranean in 1933. In many respects, it was an exemplary institution, destroyed by the Civil War, but not entirely lost.