Personal Reflections about the Dictionary

After the publication of the sixth edition of the Dictionary Ferrater Mora was not eager to prepare another edition, although for a number of reasons he was interested in seeing it kept up to date. He thought the bibliography at the end of each article should include the latest and most important books, he considered it important to present up to date interpretations of traditional thinkers, but above all, he wanted to include the most recent scientific findings for he maintained that there was very little, if any, difference between theoretical mathematics or theoretical physics and philosophy. Until his death, he kept notes referring to changes and additions that he thought should be made to various articles and he continued to make lists of the new books he thought should be added to the Dictionary. Ever eager to perfect his work, he also very carefully corrected typos that were reported to him or that he himself discovered.

In a video interview made in 1974, Ferrater Mora was asked if his personal life had suffered because of the great amount of time he had spent working on the Dictionary. He answered that he had not suffered at all and added, "I have enjoyed enormously all my intellectual activities. I think I wouldn't be pleased if I hadn't done some intellectual work that demanded a great deal of effort." One can imagine just how many hours were devoted to this work when one considers that the various editions were prepared on a typewriter, rather than a computer.

Ferrater Mora sometimes expressed impatience at the amount of attention paid to his Dictionary and the relative lack of attention directed to his more speculative works. In the Preface to the sixth edition, he says that while he prefers his more original work to the Dictionary, he is not sorry he has spent so much time and effort on it for he thinks such a work is important for philosophy in general, and for Spanish speaking people in particular.