El hilo de la verdad

by Eugenio Trías

Poco antes de morir, Eugenio Trías animó a sus editores a reeditar El hilo de la verdad. De todos sus libros era el que más ilusión le hacía ver de nuevo al alcance de los lectores. Como él mismo había dicho, «si hay un libro mío capaz de defenderse solo, es éste. Si se me diera a elegir un único libro susceptible de ser salvado de una catástrofe inminente, sin la menor duda elegiría éste». El hilo de la verdad es una expresión de Calderón de la Barca. Se refiere al hilo que Ariadna entrega a Teseo para recorrer el laberinto de Dédalo y luchar contra el Minotauro. Esta escenografía permite a Eugenio Trías replantear la aventura del conocimiento y destilar un concepto de Verdad acorde con su filosofía del límite. La construcción de sus principales conceptos, como son el espacio, el tiempo y el sistema de categorías, se ensaya en este libro en diálogo con obras de arte (Gran vidrio de Marcel Duchamp, Ciudadano Kane de Orson Welles, Cuarta sinfonía de Brahms) y filosofías clásicas (Así habló Zaratustra de Nietzsche, La República de Platón). Se trata de un texto que combina el vuelo poético del ensayo literario con el rigor conceptual del tratado filosófico. Sin duda, la mejor manera de adentrarse en el mundo filosófico de Eugenio Trías.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

Trias was born in Barcelona. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in Philosophy at the University of Barcelona in 1964, he continued his studies in Pamplona, Madrid, Bonn and Cologne. Since 1965 he was Assistant Professor and, later, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona (UAB). In 1972 he stayed, for one year, in Brazil and Argentina, where he offered several courses and lectures. In 1976 he became Assistant Professor of Aesthetics and Composition at the School of Architecture of Barcelona. In 1986 he gained the Chair of Philosophy at this University, where he remained until 1992. In 1992 he became Chair Professor of Philosophy at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, where he remained as a Professor of History of Ideas until his death, aged 70, in his home city.

He has an encyclopedical conception of philosophy and has spread his ideas in very diverse fields such as ethics, politics, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of history, theory of knowledge, and ontology. He has dealt with almost every field where philosophy can be applied. His preferred fields, nevertheless, have been, above all, Philosophy of Arts and Aesthetics, on the one hand, and Philosophy of Religion, on the other. He has always tried to derive his whole thought from his own personal conception of ontology, which is usually called the “Philosophy of Limit”. Many of his books have already become obligatory references in the Spanish written philosophical heritage of the last 60 years. Some of his works such as Treaty on Passion, Beauty and the Sinister, The World's limits or The Age of the Spirit have become classics of the Spanish written philosophical thought of the 20th century.

His work is regarded by the critics as one of two most significant philosophical pillars of the contemporary Spanish thought. Critics have praised his work for his particular style of writing (in which the philosophical thought gets "poetic antennas" with a great literary value). His works have been regarded not only a very important contribution to the Spanish philosophical and cultural heritage, but also an enormous textual production that will remain as one of the most reliable milestones of his generation in the fields of the philosophical literature and of the knowledge-oriented writing.