José Luis L. Aranguren (1909-1996) was born in Avila, he graduated in law in Madrid in 1931 and in Philosophy in 1936, having studied at the Faculty intellectually excellent led by Ortega y Gasset. After the Civil War, he became interested at first by religion and religious attitudes, approached from an open unusual attitude and dialogic at the time (Catholicism and Protestantism as forms of existence, 1952, Protestantism and morals, 1954). In 1955, he became professor of Ethics and Sociology from the University of Madrid, opening classrooms to contemporary European thought and linking with the Spanish thinkers exile.

First systematizing ethical studies in our country (Ethics, 1958, Ethics and Politics, 1963), commitment to the student movement led to the Franco regime to separate him from the chair. Visiting Professor at several European and American universities since 1966, in 1969 he was appointed tenured professor at the University of California. He restored to his professorship in Madrid in 1976, served during the Transition intense intellectual work (The established democracy. An intellectual critique, 1979). National Essay Prize in 1989 (Ethics happiness and other languages), doctor honoris causa of the Carlos III University of Madrid in 1993, and that of Santiago de Compostela in 1995, the same year he received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. In 2009, several universities and institutions joined the events held on the occasion of his centenario.a.