Sebastián Izquierdo

Sebastián Izquierdo was born on 29 January 1601 at Alcaraz, in the Castilian province of Albacete.{{sfn|Carreras i Artau|1939|page=305}} He joined the Jesuits on November 17, 1623 and studied at the Jesuit college in Alcalá de Henares and the prestigious Colegio Imperial de Madrid.{{sfn|Díaz Díaz|1980|page=345}} He taught Philosophy and Theology at Alcalá, Murcia and Madrid and became Rector of the colleges of Murcia and Madrid. The environment at these colleges was brimming with renewed interest in the work of the Catalonian philosopher Ramon Llull emphasizing theoretical mathematics, combinatorics, and methodology of science.{{sfn|Novotný|2017|p=230}} In 1659, he published in Lyon his monumental philosophical work Pharus scientiarum (The Lighthouse of Sciences), which was widely disseminated throughout Europe. Two years later, he left for Rome in order to attend the eleventh General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, at which time he was named assistant to the Superior General for Spain and the West Indies. In Rome he befriended among others the well-known German polymath Athanasius Kircher.{{sfn|Díaz Díaz|1980|page=345}} In 1664 he published there the first part of his Opus Teologicum, and in 1670 the second part. He died in Rome on 20 February 1681.{{sfn|Díaz Díaz|1980|page=345}}

Although Izquierdo is virtually forgotten nowadays, he was an important figure 17th-century philosophy. Izquierdo was a follower of the Spanish medieval philosopher Ramon Llull. He was also strongly influenced by Bacon's empiricism.{{cite book|first=Frances A.|last=Yates|author-link=Frances Yates|title=Art Of Memory|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|page=379|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MRFFAQAAQBAJ|isbn=9781136353611}} In his Pharus scientiarum he emphasized the need for a universal science that could be valid for all human knowledge (scientia de scientia or arte general del saber). It would be akin to the manner in which the Lullian Ars Magna was applicable to the entire ladder of creation. At the same time, Izquierdo advocated mathematizing the ars lulliana, and in the course of his exposition illustrates how Llull's letter combinations could be replaced by number combinations.{{sfn|Rossi|1960|pages=194-195}} According to Izquierdo only the mathematization of the Lullian ars combinandi could make it possible to create that unique instrument of all the sciences 'by means of which the edifice of science can be constructed and can grow infinitely'.{{cite book|title=Logic and the Art of Memory. The Quest for a Universal Language|first=Paolo|last=Rossi|year=2006|isbn=9781847144614|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|page=141}} The German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, influenced by the Pharus scientiarum, wrote his immense Ars magna sciendi an attempt to make the Lullian Ars a "science of science" suitable for the preparation of an encyclopedia of all human knowledge.{{sfn|Rossi|1960|page=196}}

Historians of mathematics remember Izquierdo especially in connection with combinatorics, to which he devoted Disputation 29 (De Combinatione). He was the first to discuss the number of k-combinations from a given set of n elements.Cf. {{cite book|first=Donald Ervin|last=Knuth|author-link=Donald Ervin Knuth|title=The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4, Fascicle 4: Generating All Trees: History of Combinatorial Generation|location=Boston|publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional|year=2006|pages=60–61}} Izquierdo influenced several contemporary philosophers, such as the Spanish Juan Caramuel and Tomás Vicente Tosca and the German Gaspar Knittel and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; the latter, in particular, quoted the Disputatio de Combinatione, in his De Arte Combinatoria (1666).{{sfn|Fuertes Herreros|1981|pages=270-271}} The Disputatio 29 «De Combinatione», was rescued from oblivion and studied in depth by the Jesuit historian of philosophy Ramón Ceñal, who not only translated it from Latin but also carried out an exhaustive study of it published by the Instituto de España.{{cite book|first=Ramón|last=Ceñal|title=La combinatoria de Sebastián Izquierdo|location=Madrid|publisher=Instituto de España|year=1974}}

A prolific author, Izquierdo wrote philosophical, theological and ascetic works.

• Theses de Immaculata Conceptione, Alcalá, 1658.
• {{cite book

| date = 1659

| title = Pharus scientiarum

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FjKs7xa-8m0C

| location = Lyon

| publisher = Bourgeat and Liétard

| volume = 1

}}

• {{cite book

| date = 1659

| title = Pharus scientiarum

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MZwDNhACTwQC

| location = Lyon

| publisher = Bourgeat and Liétard

| volume = 2

}}

• {{cite book

| date = 1664

| title = Opus theologicum

| location = Rome

| publisher = ex typographia Varesiana

| volume = 1

}}

• {{cite book

| date = 1670

| title = Opus theologicum

| location = Rome

| publisher = ex typographia Varesiana

| volume = 2

}}

• Practica de los Exercicios Espirituales de Nuestro Padre San Ignacio. En Roma 1665, 1675.This work is quoted at length numerous times by C. G. Jung in Lectures at ETH Zurich, published as Jung on Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises (Princeton University 2023), edited by Martin Liebscher.
• Consideraciones de los cuatro Novísimos del Hombre: Muerte, Juicio, Infierno y Gloria, Rome, 1672.
• Medios necessarios para la Salvación. Rome, 1674.

On the life and ideas of Izquierdo, see:

• {{cite book

|title= Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jesús

|year= 1890

|last= Sommervogel

|first= Carlos

|publisher= O. Schepens

|location= Bruxelles

|volume= IV

|author-link= Carlos Sommervogel

|pages= 699–704

}}

• {{cite encyclopedia

|title= Sebastián Izquierdo

|encyclopedia= Diccionario biográfico español

|date=

|year=

|last= Burrieza Sánchez

|first= Javier

|publisher= Real Academia de la Historia

|location=

|id=

|url= https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/16626/sebastian-izquierdo

|access-date= 10 November 2023

}}

• {{cite book|first=Joaquim|last=Carreras i Artau|author-link=Joaquim Carreras i Artau|title=Historia de la filosofía española: filosofía cristiana de los siglos XIII al XV|location=Madrid|volume=II|year=1939|pages=305–309|publisher=Real academia de ciencias exactas, físicas y naturales}}
• {{cite book|first=Paolo|last=Rossi|title=Clavis Universalis. Arti Mnemoniche e Logica combinatoria da Lullo a Leibniz|location=Milan and Naples|year=1960|publisher=Ricciardi e Associati|url=https://archive.org/details/rossi-paolo.-clavis-universalis.-arti-mnemoniche-e-logica-combinatoria-da-lullo-a-leibniz-ocr-1960}}
• {{cite encyclopedia

|title= Izquierdo, Sebastián

|encyclopedia= Hombres y documentos de la filosofían española

|year= 1980

|first= Gonzalo

|last= Díaz Díaz

|publisher= Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas

|isbn= 9788400071981

|pages= 344–348

|volume= IV

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Ulx2aYE7W5kC&pg=PA344

|access-date= 10 August 2023

}}

• {{cite book|first=José Luis|last=Fuertes Herreros|title=La lógica como fundamentación del arte general del saber en Sebastián Izquierdo. Estudio del "Pharus scientiarum" (1659)|location=Salamanca|publisher=Universidad de Salamanca, Instituto de Estudios Albacetenses|year=1981|isbn=84-7481-185-6}}
• {{cite journal|first=Cesare|last=Vasoli|title=I gesuiti e l'enciclopedismo seicentesco|journal=Les jésuites parmi les hommes aux XVIe et XVIIle siècles|year=1988|location=Clermont-Ferrand|pages=491–507}}
• {{cite book|first=Piero|last=Di Vona|title=I concetti trascendenti in Sebastián Izquierdo e nella Scolastica del Seicento|publisher=Loffredo|location=Naples|year=1994}}
• {{cite journal|first=Carlos|last=Ortiz de Landázuri|title=La lógica barroca de Sebastián Izquierdo. A propósito de la doble cuantificación de la proposición|journal=El Barroco Iberoamericano y la Modernidad: Actas del VI Simposio Internacional del Instituto de Pensamiento Iberoamericano. Salamanca, 12-14 de Septiembre de 2012|year=2013|pages=189–195|isbn=978-84-7299-983-1}}
• {{cite journal|year=2017|journal=American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly|volume=91|issue=2|pages=227–249|doi=10.5840/acpq2017313114|title=Sebastián Izquierdo on Universals: A Way Beyond Realism and Nominalism?|first=Daniel D.|last=Novotný|s2cid=171458990 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/NOVSIO-4 }}
• {{cite journal|first=Brian|last=Embry|title=Sebastián Izquierdo's (1601–1681) Theory of Priority|journal=Journal of the American Philosophical Association|volume=4|issue=4|year=2013|pages=491–509|doi=10.1017/apa.2018.37|s2cid=171676402 |url=https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/77700680/sebastian_izquierdos_16011681_theory_of_priority.pdf }}
• {{cite journal|title=Iluminar las ciencias desde el arte general del saber: la nueva enciclopedia barroca de Sebastián Izquierdo|year=2017|journal=Quaestio|volume=17|pages=545–569|doi=10.1484/J.QUAESTIO.5.115305|first=Manuel|last=Lázaro}}

For an extended study of Izquierdo's combinatory analysis and its influence, see:

• {{cite journal|first=Ramón|last=Ceñal|title=El Padre Sebastián Izquierdo y su Pharus Scientiarum|journal=Revista de Filosofía|volume=1|year=1942|pages=127–154}}
• {{cite journal|first=Miguel|last=Adán Oliver|title=Sebastián Izquierdo, Matemático Barroco|journal=El Quijote Dilatado|publisher=Ediciones Sta.Mª de Alarcos|location=Ciudad Real|year=2015|url=https://iesstamariadealarcos.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/nucc81m-11-el-quijote-dilatado.pdf|pages=11–36}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1601 births

Category:1681 deaths

Category:People from the Province of Albacete

Category:Catholic philosophers

Category:Scholastic philosophers

Category:Spanish male writers

Category:17th-century Spanish philosophers

Category:17th-century Spanish Roman Catholic theologians

Category:17th-century Spanish Jesuits