Abstract

GUMBRECHT, Hans Ulrich. The Thought Space of Baltasar Gracián. On the Fascination of a Cold Concretion.Translated byDominik Hofmann. Hist. graf [online]. 2021, n.57, pp.223-256.  Epub July 03, 2021. ISSN 1405-0927.  https://doi.org/10.48102/hyg.vi57.384.

Baltasar Gracián impressed posterity as a striking profile figure, between whose work and life circumstances there was a formative and illuminating relationship. Scholars who have studied it emphasized above all specific aspects: for example, its place in the tradition of intellectual history, individual philological problems that are difficult to solve, or moments of particular intensity in the history of reception. Thus, in the end, the outline of his signature figure is not filled with a coloring that completes it as an individual image.

Werner Krauss, author of The Doctrine of Life According to Baltasar Gracián, a book about the Jesuit Gracián, puts the Oráculo manual at its center, published in 1647. Gracián’s “doctrine of life”, according to Krauss himself, is based in the saving power that rational premises and arguments provide in precarious life situations, and the existential orientation thus acquired becomes independent of the specific circumstances from which it originated. This still holds true for the middle of the 20th Century.

Keywords : Concretion; Baltasar Gracián; Oráculo manual; Doctrine of Life.