Romero, Francisco (1891–1962)

Francisco Romero (b. 19 June 1891; d. 7 October 1962), Argentine philosopher who is recognized as one of the most important philosophers in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world in general. Romero was born in Seville, Spain, and attended a military school in Argentina. He became a disciple of Alejandro Korn, and was professor of philosophy at the Universities of Buenos Aires and La Plata. The German philosophy that flourished during the first three decades of the twentieth century, represented in the writings of Wilhelm Dilthey, Edmund Husserl, Nicolai Hartmann, and Max Scheler, had a great influence on the maturation of Romero's philosophical thought. Within this framework, he made original contributions in his chief work, Theory of Man (1964), a philosophical anthropology based on the concept of "intention-ality" as a characteristic distinguishing the human psyche from that of animals. Theory of Man is also the outline of a metaphysics founded on the idea of the spirit as an absolute transcendence.

Part of Romero's work concerned itself with the diffusion—as well as the interpretation—of philosophy from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. Unlike most other Latin American philosophers, he was interested in the history and structure of philosophy, as can be seen in Sobre la historia de la filosofía (1943) and La estructura de la historia de la filosofía y otros ensayos (1967). Through his writings and personal activities, he became one of the great inspirations to the development of professional philosophy in Latin American and to the study of Latin American thought.

See alsoKorn, Alejandro; Philosophy: Overview.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Majorie Silliman Harris, Franciso Romero on Problems of Philosophy (1960).

Universidad De Buenos Aires, Homenaje a Francisco Romero (1964).

Arturo Ardao et al., Francisco Romero, maestro de la filosofía latinoamericana (1983).

Additional Bibliography

Speroni, José Luis, and Jorge Victoriano Alonso. El pensamiento de Francisco Romero: Retrato de un filósofo argentine del siglo XX. Buenos Aires: Edivérn, 2001.

                             Juan Carlos Torchia Estrada