Álvaro Cortina Urdampilleta

Álvaro Cortina Urdampilleta (Bilbao, 1983) is Professor of Political Theory and Metaphysics at IE University. He also lectures on philosophy (Modern Philosophy, Metaphysics, Ethics, among other subjects) at the Real Centro Universitario María Cristina - El Escorial and has given seminars on more specific topics, such as Aristotle's political philosophy or German Romantic aesthetics at the School of Philosophy in Madrid, at Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and at Universidad Complutense. He is a regular literary critic in the weekly magazine El Cultural, and collaborates with ABC (Terceras), EL PAÍS (Tribunas), Jot Down and Revista de Occidente. 

So far, he has published two books on the history of ideas (Bergson and the Aristotelian model of immanent teleology-Leiden University, 2019-and The Mirror and the Oracle. De lo sublime estético a lo pragmático mundano en Schopenhauer -Guillermo Escolar, 2022-), a long creative essay on the relations between art and life and between philosophy and literature, entitled Abisal. Libro de zonas y de figuras -Jekyll&Jill, 2021-and two novels: one of science fiction, Deshielo y ascensión -Jekyll&Jill, 2013, reed. 2016- and another of crime and bookish genre, Garravento, la garra al viento -2022. He is preparing two more fictions, Antro and Apogeo, forthcoming. He has also translated Arthur Schopenhauer together with Dr. Javier Sánchez-Arjona.

He holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Navarra and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Leiden (The Netherlands) and the Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago de Chile). He also holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Navarra. He has been a member of the Forschungskolloquiums Klassische Deutsche Philosophie of the Humboldt University of Berlin, of the Comissio Leonina of Paris and has been a visiting researcher at the École Normale Supérieure of Paris. 

He has given seminars at the Universidad Diego Portales and the University of Leiden, in addition to the places mentioned above, and has lectured at the University of Oxford, the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, the École Normale Supérieure, the University of Göttingen and took part on the Formentor Litterary Encounters (Formentor Foundation) in 2023. He has published academic articles in specialized journals on metaphysics, philosophy of history and aesthetics in Aristotle and authors of the nineteenth and twentieth century. His latest academic works deal with European romanticism («La estética de Donoso Cortés. De la querella romántica a su superación» y «La naturaleza sublime en Chateaubriand», Revista de Occidente, march and november, respectively, in 2024; «Schopenhauer y la cuádruple raíz del principio de la estética» Revista Pensamiento) and Aristotle’s philosophy («Aristóteles sobre lo mejor que no es ni siempre ni casi siempre», in Nomos Verlag. Baden-Baden, Germany. Volumen de homenaje al Prof. Marcelo D. Boeri).

Academic and Professional Experience

• Adjunt Professor at IE University, 2020 - Present

• Visiting Professor at the St. Augustine Theological Center, 2019 

• Visiting Professor at San Damaso University, 2022

• Doctor Assistant Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, 2019

• Diego Portales University / University of Leiden Doctoral Scholarship, 2013 - 2017

• Collaborator of EL CULTURAL, 2021 - Present

• Collaborator of EL MUNDO, 2007 - 2013

Academic Background

• PhD in Philosophy, Leiden University (Netherlands), 2019

• Master in Advanced Studies in Philosophy, Complutense University of Madrid, 2013

• PhD Scholarship from Universidad Diego Portales /Leiden University, 2013 - 2018

• Degree in Philosophy, University of Navarra, 2006

• Degree in Audiovisual Communication, University of Navarra, 2004