Marías was born in the city of Valladolid, and moved to Madrid at the age of five. He went on to study philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid, graduating in 1936. Within months of his graduation the Spanish Civil War broke out. During the conflict Marías sided with the Republicans, although his actual contributions were limited to propaganda articles and broadcasts.
After the end of the war in 1939, Marías was imprisoned for several months on false charges, and was unable to carry out university teaching activities after his release. His doctoral thesis was rejected due to the committee's animosity towards someone who was a disciple of Ortega. In 1940, his History of Philosophy was published — his first work published after the civil war — and although it ended up being a great publishing success, it led him to go through a period of financial difficulties due to his being banned from teaching by the Franco regime, and so Marías instead supported himself with private classes and translations.
In 1948 he co-founded, along with his former teacher José Ortega y Gasset, the Instituto de Humanidades (which he went on to head after the death of Ortega in 1955). Between the late 1940s and the 1970s, being unable to teach in Spain, Marías taught at numerous institutions in the United States, including Harvard University, Yale University, Wellesley College, the University of Oklahoma, and UCLA.
He is the father of novelist Javier Marías and art historian Fernando Marías, and married the sister of director Jesús Franco.
Works
Juventud en el mundo antiguo. Crucero universitario por el Mediterráneo, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1934
Historia de la filosofía, with a prologue by Xavier Zubiri, epilogue by José Ortega y Gasset, Revista de Occidente, Madrid 1941 (28th ed., 1976)
La filosofía del Padre Gratry. La restauración de la Metafísica en el problema de Dios y de la persona, Escorial, Madrid 1941
Miguel de Unamuno, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1943
El tema del hombre, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1943
San Anselmo y el insensato y otros estudios de filosofía, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1944
Introducción a la filosofía, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1947
La filosofía española actual. Unamuno, Ortega, Morente, Zubiri, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1948
El método histórico de las generaciones, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1949
Ortega y tres antípodas. Un ejemplo de intriga intelectual, Revista de Occidente, Buenos Aires, 1950
Biografía de la Filosofía, Emecé, Buenos Aires, 1954
Ensayos de teoría, Barna, Barcelona, 1954
Idea de la Metafísica, Columba, Buenos Aires, 1954
La estructura social. Teoría y método, Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones, Madrid, 1955
Filosofía actual y existencialismo en España, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1955
El oficio del pensamiento, Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 1958
La Escuela de Madrid. Estudios de filosofía española, Emecé, Buenos Aires, 1959
Ortega. I. Circunstancia y vocación, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1960
Los españoles, Revista de Occidente, Madrid. 1962
La España posible en tiempo de Carlos III, Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones, Madrid, 1963
El tiempo que ni vuelve ni tropieza, Edhasa, Barcelona, 1964
Análisis de los Estados Unidos, Guadarrama, Madrid, 1968
Antropología metafísica. La estructura empírica de la vida humana, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1970
Visto y no visto. Crónicas de cine, Guadarrama, Madrid, 1970, 2 vols.
Imagen de la India e Israel: una resurrección, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1973
Problemas del cristianismo, BAC, Madrid, 1979
La mujer en el siglo XX, Alianza, Madrid, 1980
Ortega. II. Las trayectorias, Alianza, Madrid, 1983
España inteligible. Razón histórica de las Españas, Alianza, Madrid, 1985
La mujer y su sombra, Alianza, Madrid, 1986
Ser español, Planeta, Barcelona, 1987
Una vida presente. Memorias, Alianza, Madrid, 1988–1989, 3 vols.: I (1914–1951), II (1951–1975), III (1975–1989).
La felicidad humana, Alianza, Madrid 1989
Generaciones y constelaciones, Alianza, Madrid, 1989
Cervantes, clave española, Alianza, Madrid, 1990
Acerca de Ortega, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1991
La educación sentimental, Alianza, Madrid, 1992
Razón de la filosofía, Alianza, Madrid, 1993
Mapa del mundo personal, Alianza, Madrid 1993
El cine de Julián Marías. Escritos sobre cine, compilation edited by Fernando Alonso, Royal Books, Barcelona, 1994, 2 vols.
Tratado de lo mejor, Alianza, Madrid, 1995
Persona, Alianza, Madrid, 1996
Sobre el cristianismo, Planeta Testimonio, Barcelona, 1997
El curso del tiempo, Tomos I y II, Alianza, 1998. 2 vols.
Tratado sobre la convivencia, Martínez Roca, Barcelona 2000
Entre dos siglos, Alianza, Madrid, 2002
Obras, Revista de Occidente / Alianza Editorial, Madrid 1958–1970, 10 vols.
Selected works in translation
Reason and Life: The Introduction to Philosophy, trans. Kenneth S. Reid and Edward Sarmiento (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956).
History of Philosophy, trans. Stanley Appelbaum and Clarence C. Strowbridge (New York: Dover Publications, 1966).
Miguel de Unamuno, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966).
José Ortega y Gasset: Circumstance and Vocation, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970).
Metaphysical Anthropology: The Empirical Structure of Human Life, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971).
Philosophy as Dramatic Theory, trans. James Parsons (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971).
Generations: A Historical Method, trans. Harold C. Raley (University: University of Alabama Press, 1971).
America in the Fifties and Sixties: Julián Marías on the United States, trans. Blanche De Puy and Harold C. Raley (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971).
A Biography of Philosophy, trans. Harold C. Raley (University: University of Alabama Press, 1987).
The Structure of Society, trans. Harold C. Raley with an introduction by Robert K. Merton (University: University of Alabama Press, 1987).
Understanding Spain, trans. Frances M. López-Morillas (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990).
Gratry's Philosophy, trans. Mary L. O'Hara (Adelaide: ATF Press, 1991).
The Christian Perspective, trans. Harold C. Raley (Houston: Halcyon Press, 2000).
Persona, trans. Paul A. Dumol (forthcoming).
References
^A. Pablo Iannone, Dictionary of World Philosophy', Routledge, 2013, p. 328: "Madrid School".
