Fernando Savater

Fernando Savater (born in San Sebastián in 1947) is a Spanish philosopher, essayist and novelist, best known for bringing philosophy to a wide public. He belongs to the Enlightenment tradition and describes himself as a "companion philosopher", in the manner of the French philosophes rather than the academic kind.

He taught philosophy at several universities. In 1973 a teaching contract in Madrid was not renewed, a decision widely read as political reprisal that sparked student protests. After Franco's regime fell, he taught Ethics at the University of the Basque Country. His popularity grew through essays and newspaper columns, the form he particularly favours, and through books such as The Content of Happiness (1986) and Ethics for Amador (1991), which made him a reference point for a whole generation.

His work also includes fiction and drama. In The Recovered Childhood (1976) he defended the storytelling impulse over formal experiment, and in Creatures of the Air (1979) he gave voice to historical and literary figures. His first novel, Caronte Waits (1981), is a detective story that reflects on evil and revenge.

Savater sees philosophy as constant criticism and as an expression of subjectivity, practised with irony and paradox. Inspired by Spinoza, he proposes an ethics of wanting rather than an ethics of duty: people naturally seek their own happiness, and ethics should clarify that aim rather than judge actions by abstract rules alien to it. In politics he has moved from libertarian positions to a democratic, universalist liberalism, and he has consistently opposed nationalism.

His influence lies in his presence in the press, on television and in public debate, and in having brought philosophy to readers without specialist training.