Molina Garmendia, Enrique (1871–1964)

Enrique Molina Garmendia (b. 4 August 1871; d. 8 March 1964), Chilean philosopher and educator. Enrique Molina graduated in 1892 from the University of Chile's Instituto Pedagógico, a leading teacher-training institution that launched a generation of secularly oriented secondary school teachers. Their aim was to further undermine the influence of the church in education. Molina, however, became critical of both Catholicism and the dominant secular school of positivism. He developed a philosophical approach that emphasized secular spiritual values. His most important work was De lo espiritual en la vida humana (1937), which brought to Chile the emphasis on human values that changed the philosophical landscape in several Latin American nations. In this and other writings he introduced a distinction between spiritual and materialistic concerns that had a significant impact on the nature of philosophical studies in Chile: spiritual values came to be seen as the proper emphasis of philosophy. Molina was also a historian of Chilean philosophy. In his La filosofía en Chile en la primera mitad del siglo XX (1953), Molina reviewed the development of philosophy and advanced an interpretation of the discipline as removed from social and political concerns. An institution builder, Molina presided over the University of Concepcián, the first private secular university, for nearly forty years (1919–1956). He also founded the journal Atenea and was instrumental in the creation of the Sociedad Chilena de Filosofía in 1948. Despite his antipolitical stands, he served as minister of education during the increasingly anti-Communist administration of Gabriel González Videla (1946–1952). He gave philosophical expression to the rejection of Marxism but retained a commitment to the reform of society through education.

See alsoUniversities: The Modern Era .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Iván Jaksíc, Academic Rebels in Chile: The Role of Philosophy and Higher Education in Chile (1989).

Solomon Lipp, Three Chilean Thinkers (1975).

Additional Bibliography

Costa Leiva, Miguel da. "Enrique Molina Garmendia: Sus ideas pedagógicas (1871–1964)." Revista Pensamiento Educativo 34 (June 2004): 135-161.

                                                             IvÁn JaksÍc