LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

Yesterday my daughter Laura Lynn and granddaughter Chloe visited the Feria del Libro at the Parque del Retiro in Madrid. I aimed to visit Emilio Lledó (1927-) and have him sign some of his books. There he was, a sprite and feisty philosopher who commands my respect and interest, as very few do.  "... es el lenguaje, ese aire semántico que enlaza a los seres humanos y les hace comunicarse y entenderse, lo que forja... el símbolo más característico de la humanidad." (Los libros y la libertad, 2013.) "Ante los libros, mientras el tiempo nos sostiene y alienta, somos capaces de recuperar lo que otros seres como nosotros gozaron, sufrieron, soñaron, pensaron." (Los libros y la libertad, 2013.) "... los regímenes sostenidos por oligarquías económicas y religiosas tienden a fomentar la incultura y la manipulación." (Ibid.)  "Sabemos que la verdadera aportación a la cultura es el lenguaje: ese aire semántico que sale de nuestra boca, y con el que nuestra e...

  On a trip to San Francisco, to visit my daughter Laura who wined and dined me to undeserved points, I bought this book in a small bookshop in Alameda. It is profusely underlined and highlighted, like all my books. I have been interested in Leibniz and Spinoza since my early teens and have recommended both, and philosophy in general, instead of the self-help books that those sitting below the salt are wont to read. Allow me a quotation from this book: "Philosophy, as Spinoza understands it, does not peddle in temporary cheer, modest improvements in well-being, or chicken soup for the soul; it seeks and claims to find a basis of happiness that is absolutely certain, permanent, and divine. The principal -indeed the sole- of his mature philosophy, as expressed in his masterpiece the Ethics , is to achieve this kind of blessedness or salvation." Mathew Stewart, The Courtier and the Heretic, Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God , W.W. Norton, 2006. 

Today I needed reason, objectiveness, clear thinking, rationality... ideas I could hold on to to make it through the week. I rushed to dust off my two-volume edition of David Hume ´s A Treatise of Human Nature, (Everyman's, 1974) which   I bought in 1976, 48 years ago! Although the edition is in pretty good shape, I must be getting on in years. You have no idea the amount of underlining, highlighting, and marginalia I have found. I don´t have to reread the whole work again. The notes I took 48 years ago will keep me in good stead now. I am glad I was a prolific glosser of the books I read. I will now extract and offer some of his philosophical pearls in time. The study of philosophy and the study of language go hand in hand.