14 Facts About Jaime Balmes

Jaime Luciano Balmes y Urpia was a Spanish philosopher, theologian, Catholic apologist, sociologist and political writer.

Familiar with the doctrine of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Balmes was an original philosopher who did not belong to any particular school or stream, and was called by Pius XII the Prince of Modern Apologetics.

In 1817, Jaime Balmes began his studies at the seminary in Vic: three years of Latin grammar, three of Rhetoric and, from 1822, three of Philosophy.

From 1825 to 1826, Jaime Balmes studied courses of Theology, in Vic Seminary.

Jaime Balmes studied four courses of Theology, thanks to a scholarship, in the College of San Carlos at the University of Cervera.

For two years in 1830, because of the closure of the University of Cervera, Jaime Balmes continued studying in Vic, on his own.

On 20 September 1834, in the chapel of the episcopal palace of Vic, Jaime Balmes was ordained a priest by bishop don Pablo de Jesus Corcuera.

Jaime Balmes continued his studies in theology and of Canons, again at the University of Cervera.

Jaime Balmes then made several attempts to teach in an official way at the University of Barcelona and not get engaged for some time in Vic tutoring.

For Jaime Balmes there is no possibility of doubting everything: making such statement, we forget that there are a series of rules of thought that we admit as truths in order to be able to doubt.

However, Jaime Balmes prefers to distribute them in three: the criteria of conscience, those of evidence and those of common sense.

Therefore, Jaime Balmes argues that metaphysics should not be sustained only on one column, but on three that correspond to the three truths: thus, the principle of Cartesian consciousness, the cogito ergo sum is a truth subjective, while the principle of non-contradiction Aristotelian is truly rational.

For Jaime Balmes, consciousness is the foundation of the other criteria, and all are necessarily born of it.

Jaime Balmes divides between two types of evidence, the immediate and the mediate: the first does not require proof, it is a priori knowledge, such as knowing that every object is equal to itself.