Juan Luis Vives

Joan Lluís Vives i March (6 March 1492 – 6 May 1540), better known as Juan Luis Vives (y March), was a Valencian scholar and humanist.

Biography

Vives was born in Valencia. As a child, he saw his father, grandmother and great-grandfather, as well as members of their wider family, executed as Judaizers at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition; his mother was acquitted but died of the plague when he was 15 years old. [http://www.press.uillinois.edu/epub/books/vives/life.html] Shortly thereafter, he left Spain never to return.

He studied at Paris from 1509 to 1512, and in 1519 was appointed professor of humanities at the University of Leuven. At the insistence of his friend Erasmus, he prepared an elaborate commentary on Augustine's "De Civitate Dei", which was published in 1522 with a dedication to Henry VIII of England. Soon afterwards, he was invited to England, and acted as tutor to the Princess Mary, for whose use he wrote "De ratione studii puerilis epistolae duae" (1523) and, ostensibly, "De Institutione Feminae Christianae", on the education of girls.

While in England, he resided at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he was made doctor of laws and lectured on philosophy. Having declared himself against the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he lost royal favour and was confined to his house for six weeks. On his release, he withdrew to Bruges, where he devoted the rest of his life to the composition of numerous works, chiefly directed against the scholastic philosophy and the preponderant unquestioning authority of Aristotle. The most important of his treatises is the "De Causis Corruptarum Artium", which has been ranked with Bacon's "Organon".

His most important pedagogic work are "Introductio ad sapientiam" (1524), "De disciplinis", which stressed the urgent importance of more rationale programs of studying; "De prima philosophia"; and the "Exercitatio linguae latinae", which is a Latin textbook consisting of a series of brilliant dialogues. His philosophical works include "De anima et vita" (1538), "De veritate fidei Christianae" and "De subventione pauperum" (1526), the last dealing with social themes.

He died at Bruges in 1540 at the age of 48.

Contemporary Relevance

Vives is considered the first scholar to analyze the psyche directly. He did extensive interviews with people, and noted the relation between their exhibition of affect, and the particular words and issues they were discussing. While it is unknown if Freud was familiar with Vives's work, historian of psychiatry, Gregory Zilboorg, considered Vives a godfather of psychoanalysis. ("A History of Medical Psychology", 1941)

Major works

*"Opuscula varia "(1519), collection of small works include Vives' first philosophical works, "De initiis, sectis et laudibus philosophiae".
*"Adversus pseudodialecticos "(1520)
*"De subventione pauperum. Sive de humanis necessitatibus libri II "(1525), dealing with the proble of poverty.
*"De Europae dissidis et Republica "(1526).
*"De concordia et discordia in humano genere "(1529).
*"De pacificatione "(1529).
*"Quam misera esset vita chistianorum sub Turca "(1529).
*"De disciplinis libri XX "(1531). An encyclopedical work, divided into three parts: "De causis corruptarum artium", "De tradendis disciplinis" and "De artibus"
*"De anima et vita "(1538)
*"De Europeae statu ac tumultibus", a mediation addressing to the Pope to ask peace between the Christian princes.
*"Introductio ad sapientiam "(1524), the most important of his pedagogical works.
*"De institutione feminae christianae"

ee also

* Joan Lluís Vives Institute

References

*1911