Joxe Azurmendi Otaegi (19 March 1941 – 1 July 2025) was a Spanish Basque writer, philosopher, essayist and poet. He published numerous articles and books on ethics, politics, the philosophy of language, technique, Basque literature and philosophy in general."Azurmendi, Joxe" . Harluxet Hiztegi Entziklopedikoa (Encyclopedia Online in Basque)(Retrieved 29 October 2013)
Azurmendi was member of Jakin and the director of Jakin irakurgaiak, a publishing house which has published over 40 books under his management. He also collaborated with the KlasikoakKlasikoak , Collection of translations into the Basque language of the classics of universal thought (website of EHU) publishing firm in the Basque translations of various philosophical works and was one of the founders of Udako Euskal Unibertsitatea (The Basque Summer University).Andoni Olariaga: "Joxe Azurmendi. Askatasunaren pentsalaria" in Alaitz Aizpuru, Eukal Herriko pentsamenduaren gida, Bilbo: UEU, 2012. p. 147 He has been Professor of Modern Philosophy and a lecturer at Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (The University of the Basque Country).Joxe Azurmendi at The University of the Basque Country (EHU) In 2010 he was awarded the title "honorary academic" by Euskaltzaindia (The Basque Language Academy).Joxe Azurmendi at The Basque Language Academy
He was an intellectual who studied the problem more than the solution. Azurmendi's essays cover modern European topics in great depth and knowledge. He has incorporated the philosophy and thinking of European thinkers, especially German ones. He often adopted a polemic tone.Altzibar, Xabier. "The Essay in Basque" in Mari Jose Olaziregi (ed.), Basque Literary History, Reno, Center for Basque Studies/University of Nevada, pp. 283–84
Azurmendi was, in the opinion of many, one of the most prolific and erudite thinkers in the Basque Country.Altzibar, Xabier. "The Essay in Basque" in Mari Jose Olaziregi (ed.), Basque Literary History, Reno: Center for Basque Studies/University of Nevada, 2012Iturriotz, Ander (2010). "Zergatik Azurmendi?", Hegats, 45: 9–15.
Background Joxe Azurmendi studied philosophy and theology at The University of the Basque Country, Rome and the University of Münster.Preface by Gandiaga in Joxe Azurmendi: Hitz berdeak, Oñati: EFA, 1971
At the beginning of the 1960s, he joined the cultural movement which grew up around the magazine Jakin, and was in fact the director of the publication when it was prohibited for the first time by Franco's regime. He has collaborated closely and uninterruptedly with the magazine since its restoration. In that publication, he has raised the problems of Basque society in the context of European thinkers.Sudupe, Pako: 50eko hamarkadako euskal literatura II, Donostia: Utriusque Vasconiae, 2011. p. 283.Many editorials, new journals, and even a summer university were established with the aim of creating strategic institutions to modernise Basque culture. Azurmendi, Haritz & Garmendia, Alba (2019): Basque ‘68 in Light of Cultural Nationalism and Critical Utopia, Studies in Arts and Humanities, 5 (1), p. 90 During the early 1970s, he focused his attention on disseminating basic literature in the Basque language on subjects which were being hotly debated at the time in the Basque Country: nationhood, socialism, internationalism,Joxe Azurmendi: Arana Goiri-ren pentsamendu politikoa, Donostia: Hordago Lur, 1979. p. 1. aesthetic autonomySoto, Mikel (2025): Mirande. Herriminez, ezin-minez, Aduna, Elkar. pp. 498-504. etc. In the 1980s, he began teaching at The University of the Basque Country, and in 1984 he submitted his thesis on Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta, the founder of the Mondragon cooperative movement, in which he argued that Arizmendiarrieta's project aimed to unite individuals and society under an organisation which combined both socialism and French personalism.Andoni Olariaga: "Joxe Azurmendi. Askatasunaren pentsalaria" in Alaitz Aizpuru, Euskal Herriko pentsamenduaren gida, Bilbo: UEU, 2012. p. 149
He was a visiting scholar at the University of Cologne, the University of Padua and the Ruhr University Bochum where he spent several months each year from the 1980s until his retirement. He retired in 2011 and was appointed professor emeritus of the University of the Basque Country.Azurmendi, Haritz (2019): Joxe Azurmendiren nazioa Nazionalismo Ikerketen argitan. Abertzaletasun kulturalaren defentsa Euskal Herri garaikidean, Doctoral thesis, EHU. pp. 15-19
In 1992, he published what was to become his best-known work: Espainolak eta euskaldunak (The Spanish and the Basques). The work, published by Elkar, was written in response to a text by Sánchez-Albornoz which claimed that "The Basques are the last people to be civilised in Spain; they have a thousand years less civilisation than any other people ... They are rough, simple people who nevertheless consider themselves to be the children of God and the heirs to his glory. But they are really nothing more than un-Romanised Spaniards."Joxe Azurmendi: Espainolak eta euskaldunak, Donostia: Elkar, 1992. p. 17. Azurmendi's essay refuted and dismantled the stereotypes maintained about the Basques by certain Spanish intellectuals.Azurmendi, Haritz & Garmendia, Alba (2019): Basque ‘68 in Light of Cultural Nationalism and Critical Utopia, Studies in Arts and Humanities, 5 (1), pp. 88- 90.
It was on the threshold of the new millennium, however, that Azurmendi's work reached its height. During the early years of the 21st century, he published the trilogy formed by Espainiaren arimaz (About the soul of Spain) (2006, Elkar), Humboldt. Hizkuntza eta pentsamendua (Humboldt. Language and Thought) (2007, UEU) and Volksgeist. Herri gogoa (Volksgeist. National Character) (2008, Elkar). In this trilogy, Joxe Azurmendi reveals some of his most significant thinking.
In 2009, Azurmendi published his most personal work, Azken egunak Gandiagarekin (The last days with Gandiaga), where he reflected on different forms of rationality within philosophy of science, philosophy of religion and philosophical anthropology. The main thesis he defended was that scientific rationality has left us without the necessary language to deal with the meaning of life.Arrieta, Agustin (2013): "Eranskina: Joxe Azurmendiren Azken egunak Gandiagarekin" in Arimak eta balioak, Donostia: Jakin. p. 100Sudupe, Pako (2026): Joxe Azurmendi eta erlijioa, Jakin.
Azurmendi died in San Sebastián on 1 July 2025, at the age of 84.Fallece en San Sebastián a los 84 años el filósofo y pensador Joxe Azurmendi “Joxe Azurmendi pentsalari emankorra hil da” (Obituary) Berria (2 July 2025) According to his wishes, there was no wake or public funeral.Zapiain, Markos (2025): Ez dakizun tren baten zain, Jakin, (269/270). ISSN O211/495X
Philosophical work
All of Azurmendi's philosophical work was a defense of freedom of thought and conscience. The Human-Animal is one of the basic categories developed to carry out his work. This concept unified his thought, which was not a closed system.Urdangarin, Mikel (2024): Gizaberetxo komunitario burujabea: Joxe Azurmendi eta feminismoak subjektuaren inguruko elkarrizketan, Doctoral thesis, EHU. pp. 76-94. His work emerged and developed during a period marked by a crisis of culture, politics and values.Azurmendi, Haritz & Garmendia, Alba (2019): Basque ‘68 in Light of Cultural Nationalism and Critical Utopia, Studies in Arts and Humanities, 5 (1), p. 79 But it was a crisis that he understood not as something negative, but rather something that opened up a whole new range of possibilities. Consequently, all his thinking was centred around the defence of freedom in every field, but especially in relation to conscience and thinking.
Far from fleeing the crisis, then, his work tries to outline how we can live in this situation. To this end, he adopts a relativist perspective, and given that modernity has left us with no solid base, he fights against the last vestiges of the dogmatism towards which our society tends to lean when in crisis:
In this sense, for example, he is critical of the modern state, which he accuses of being the new church seeking to control our consciences.Joxe Azurmendi: Barkamena, kondena, tortura, Donostia: Elkar, 2012, section: "Kondena, barkamendua, hoben kolektiboa". He also criticises the exploitation of morality, or in other words, how politicians, instead of solving the problems facing them in their various areas or fields, flee instead to moral ground to hide their responsibilities under the cloak of supposedly absolute moral principles:
He also made an important contribution in questioning the canonical interpretations which have been constructed regarding different issues. Of particular interest, due to his erudition and training in Germany, is his interpretation of the German Enlightenment. In this context he deconstructed the apparent opposition between the French Enlightenment and German Romanticism and proposed a new way of thinking about the different aspects which stem from this opposition.Joxe Azurmendi: Volksgeist. Herri gogoa, Donostia: Elkar, 2008. p. 129. In this way, he defies certain Spanish and French intellectuals (Alain FinkielkrautJoxe Azurmendi: Euskal Herria krisian, Donostia: Elkar, 1999. p.119) and argued that nationalism in fact arose in France (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Ernest Renan) and was later reinterpreted by the German thinkers and romantics. By doing this, he questioned the way in which authors such as Goethe, Schiller, Herder or Humboldt are viewed as the fathers of metaphysical nationalism. In this field, the opposition between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism was deconstructed.Joxe Azurmendi: Historia, arraza, nazioa, Donostia: Elkar, 2014. p. 27. Thus, Azurmendi criticizes the essentialist basis of Spanish nationalismJoxe Azurmendi: Espainiaren arimaz, Donostia: Elkar, 2006 and French nationalismJoxe Azurmendi: Historia, arraza, nazioa, Donostia: Elkar, 2014 that operates under these nation states.
Some of the topics Azurmendi deeply developed in his essays first appeared in his poetry of youth. Azurmendi was within the Basque poetry of the 1960s which shows the fight against the tradition, the old faith and the dogmatic certainties:Estankona, I. 2010: "Artean gazte eta berde: Azurmendiren Hitz berdeak eta Manifestu atzeratua", Hegats, 45: 71–83Aizpuru, Alaitz (2016): Joxe Azurmendi 60ko poesiaren eraberritzean, HEA.Zulaika, J. 2020: Arbola beltzaren poema: Azurmendi, euskal mende hautsiaren lekuko, Jakin, 237: 15-28
But we wish to be free is that my fault? They tried to give us a tree from Gernika, a false blank check, as if the desire to be free were a sin, as if we needed an excuse for it, but despite that, we, quite simply, wish to be free. That is what we want, that is all. This is the latest deception: they have led us to believe before from outside and now from within that it is our responsibility to justify our wish to be free.
Manifestu atzeratua (Belated Manifesto) (1968)Joxe Azurmendi: "Manifestu atzeratua": Olerti 1968, 1968 III-IV Uhaina, p. 18-27.