The Effects of Making Movies on JFM's Philosophy

Some scholars who knew Ferrater Mora as a philosopher were startled when he suddenly stated making movies. Similarly, there were those who were surprised when in addition to his philosophical writings and scholarly articles, Ferrater Mora started to produce short stories and novels. His interest in his later years in (still) photography, film making, videotaping, and literature does not seem to have hindered the development of his philosophical views or interfered with his philosophical production. Ferrater Mora believed that these activities may well have helped him to produce a more rigorous type of philosophy for with the development of these other interests, his philosophy was freed, to a great extent, from any artistic intentions. This latter point may be debatable for while his philosophy became more rigorous, it is hardly true that it became less "artistic" or less carefully expressed. In fact, the opposite is true. If one compares, for example, El ser y el sentido with Fundamentos de filosifía one would agree, I think, that Ferrater has expressed the ideas of the former book in a more direct and effective form in Fundamentos de filosofía, which is exactly what he said he had done in his Initial Note to that book. The language in which he expressed his philosophy became increasingly transparent, as many commentators have noted. While it may be asked whether or in what way these other activities helped his philosophy, it is certainly clear from his record of publishing that they did not hinder his philosophical production.

Ferrater Mora continued to write important philosophical works at the same time he was filming, or writing stories or novels. Ferrater first started filming in the summer of 1967, his first short stories appeared in 1979, and his first novel in 1982. During this period he continued to write philosophical books and to refine his own philosophical ideas. He published Cambio de marcha en filosofía in 1974. In 1979, his four volume Diccionario de filosofia appeared. In that year he also published one of his most important philosophical books, De la materia a la razón, while Etica aplicada came out in 1981. During this period, he published new and enlarged editions of many of his earlier published books, producing, among others, Fundamentos de filosofía in 1985.