Farías was born in Santiago in 1940. He graduated from the Catholic University of Chile in 1961 and continued his studies in Freiburg, Germany, where he obtained a doctorate in Philosophy. During his stay in Germany, Farías studied under such German thinkers as Martin Heidegger, Rainer Marten, and Eugen Fink. Farías returned to Chile in 1971 but fled back to Germany after the 1973 coup which deposed President Allende. Farías became an investigator and professor in the Free University of Berlin, where he worked until 2006.