Antonio Escohotado, one of my dearest intellectual heroes, died today 😢
He was a true erudite, a polymath, and a free soul.
He devoured the classics, opposed dictator Franco, was the fiercest of Communists, pioneered the hippy revolution in #Ibiza, travelled the world, studied and experimented with most drugs known to mankind, changed his views, lectured #philosophy, taught himself a few languages, became the most articulate #liberal, wrote the definitive tomes on a variety of scientific subjects, changed his views again, and shared it all along the way.
What I admire the most, though, is that he read everything under the sun. Primary sources, secondary sources, biographies, commentary. And he seemed to remember it all. #Escohotado set out to deeply understand something — be it #theGreeks, #drugs, #economics, #ChaosTheory — and damned studied every single relevant page there is about the subject, tirelessly, for years, until he emerged with the most robust of opinions about the topic, and a comprehensive view in the form of a new #book.
I am very inspired by him to always freaking read the classics, and the sources.
And I have always lamented that his fame in the English-speaking world wasn’t commensurate with his many merits.
His last months were the chronicle of a death foretold: he chose to leave, and did so in his own terms, with dignity, in his beloved Ibiza.
I went to see him at public events here in #Madrid a couple of times. He was a giant, some unfortunate views or quotations notwithstanding.
I miss him already.
#AntonioEscohotado 🇪🇸 #Spain
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