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Revision as of 16:31, 13 February 2008 by Tankred (talk | contribs) (Rv. to the English version)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Béla Hamvas (23 March 1897–7 November 1968) was a Hungarian writer, philosopher, and social critic. He was the first thinker to introduce the Traditionalist School of René Guénon to Hungary.
Béla Hamvas was born in Prešov into the family of an evangelical pastor. The family moved to Bratislava, from where he completed his studies. Thereafter he entered into voluntary military sevice and was wounded twice on the front line in Ukraine. In 1919 his father refused to take an oath of allegiance to Czechoslovakia, the family was then expelled from Bratislava and moved to Budapest, where he entered the Péter Pázmány University. He was a journalist at the Budapesti Hírlap and the Szózat. In 1937 he married the writer Katalin Kemény. He was called in three times for military service in World War II. In 1945 a bomb hit their apartment; his home, library and manuscripts were destroyed.
In 1948 he was placed on the B-list by the communist regime (i.e. interdiction from publishing) and forced into retirement. Thereafter he was first a land laborer in Szentendre, then an unskilled worker in a power plant, and simultaneously completed his other works. He died of a brain haemorrhage in 1968.
He was a great thinker and essayist who integrated Eastern and Western traditions as well as posing many serious questions about the modern age, together with possibilities of resolving them. According to one of his central thoughts: "The present eon, since 600 B.C. stands in the sign of personal salvation. Only since this time is there a notion of humanity, because there is only one single collective category of personality and this is humanity."
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External links
- Hamvas Béla: The Seventh Symphony and the Metaphysics of Music
- Excerpts from Hamvas Béla's works in English
- Biography and photos of Hamvas Béla at HamvasBéla.org