Ignacio Burk

Ignacio Burk (born January 24, 1905 in Nuremberg , † July 2, 1984 in Caracas , Venezuela ) was a German missionary and Roman Catholic religious priest , who married in the 1950s. Then he worked as a university lecturer . He achieved great services as a philosopher , psychologist , educator and writer .

Life

Ignacio Martin Burk was born in Germany to Johann Burk and Barbara Wagner. He attended a grammar school in Nuremberg. In 1924 he entered the novitiate of the Order of the Salesians of Don Bosco . After his first profession he studied philosophy and theology in Rome and Austria. Then he went to Venezuela as a missionary . There he began to work as a teacher at the Franz von Sales School in Caracas and at the Don Bosco College in Valencia .

In 1932 he went as a missionary to the Venezuelan state of Amazonas and worked as a teacher, doctor and director of a school for the Piaroa . He returned to Caracas because of malaria . After his health was restored, he went to Los Teques . There he founded the College of San José. After a short stay in Valencia, he went to Valera in 1938 . In 1940 he became a Venezuelan citizen. From 1946 to 1949 he completed further studies at the National Pedagogical Institute of Caracas and earned the title of professor in the fields of biology, chemistry, philosophy and psychology. He then returned to Valera and taught there at the College of the Salesians and the Federal Republic, founded a laboratory in the local hospital and contributed to the establishment of the city's Athenaeum .

He resigned from the religious community, gave up the priesthood and married Elionor Geissler. In 1953 he moved to Maturín , where he taught at the José Miguel Sanz grammar school , designed a scientific radio program and published his research results.

In 1960 he returned to Caracas and held the chair for psychological theories and philosophical anthropology at the Pedagogical Institute for Psychology. He also headed the institute's education department. His works come from the fields of psychology, philosophy, physics and chemistry, among others. His "Brief History of Psychology", which ties in with Wilhelm Wundt , is particularly well known.

Since 1973 he published his column "Hourglass" in El Nacional , in which he treated very different topics.

Aftermath

A school was named after him in the town of Valera. There is also a private school in Cúa , Miranda , that bears his name.

Works

• together with Manuel Bemporad and Edoardo Crema: Galileo Galilei, 1564-1964 , 1964
• Psicología general. Para estudiantes del 2a ciclo de educación secundaria e inst. de formación docente , 1961; (2nd, rev.) 1964
• Breve historia de la psicologia. De los origenes a Wundt , 1966
• Las escuelas psicológicas actuales , 1966
• Copérnico, 1473-1973. Motor terrae stator solis caelique , 1973
• Tomás de Aquino , 1978
• Muro de dudas. Estudios, monografias y ensayos , T. 1 & 2, 1985

Web links

• Biography on venezuelatuya.com (Spanish)