José Ortega y Gasset
I am I and my circumstance: the radical reality is each person’s own life, and reason must be vital and historical, understanding human beings through what they have lived and done, for every life sees the world from its own perspective.
Placement
Madrid philosopher and essayist who summed up his thought in “I am I and my circumstance”: life, in which everything else appears, is the radical reality, and reason must be “vital” and historical; he founded the “Revista de Occidente” and analysed modern mass society.
Key ideas
- I am I and my circumstance
- Vital and historical reason
- Perspectivism
- The mass man
Teachers: Hermann Cohen
Students: Xavier Zubiri, José Gaos, María Zambrano
Influence
Influenced by 4
Ibn Khaldun
influenced by
In “Ibn Khaldun reveals the secret” (El Sol 1927–28; El Espectador VIII, 1934) Ortega used Ibn Khaldun’s philosophy of history and his concept of asabiyya to explain the history of North Africa and Spain’s situation in Morocco. J. Ortega y Gasset, “Abenjaldún nos revela el secreto (Pensamientos sobre África Menor)”, El Sol 1927–28; El Espectador VIII (1934)
Evidence: AI draft
Ibn Khaldun › 1332–1406
Wilhelm Dilthey
influenced by
In ‘Wilhelm Dilthey and the Idea of Life’ (1933–34) Ortega found in Dilthey’s historical understanding of life a confirmation of his vital reason, which he had reached independently. J. Ortega y Gasset, “Guillermo Dilthey y la idea de la vida” (1933–34); SEP “José Ortega y Gasset”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Wilhelm Dilthey › 1833–1911
Hermann Cohen studied with
studied with ✓
On a state grant Ortega went from Berlin to Marburg in 1907, where he studied Kant and the history of philosophy with Cohen and psychology and pedagogy with Natorp; he returned to Marburg in 1911. SEP “José Ortega y Gasset”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Hermann Cohen › 1842–1918
Edmund Husserl
influenced by
Ortega took up Husserl’s phenomenology in 1913 (‘On the Concept of Sensation’) but soon moved beyond it to a philosophy of life (Meditations on Quixote, 1914). J. Ortega y Gasset, “Sobre el concepto de sensación” (1913); Meditaciones del Quijote (1914); SEP “José Ortega y Gasset”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Edmund Husserl › 1859–1938
Influenced 4
Xavier Zubiri taught
taught
Zubiri took his doctorate in Madrid in 1921 under Ortega with a phenomenological theory of judgement (printed 1923) and in 1926 obtained the chair of history of philosophy there. J. Corominas & J. A. Vicens, Xavier Zubiri. La soledad sonora (2006)
Evidence: AI draft
Xavier Zubiri › 1898–1983
José Gaos taught
taught
Gaos studied at the Central University of Madrid (licentiate 1923, doctorate 1928) as a disciple of Ortega and of Manuel García Morente; his thesis topic on Husserl’s critique of psychologism had Ortega’s approval, and in 1940 he wrote that he could not say how far his own thinking merely reproduced Ortega’s. A. Zirión Quijano, “José Gaos y González Pola”, Enciclopedia Electrónica de la Filosofía Mexicana (UAM); J. Gaos, Confesiones profesionales (1958)
Evidence: AI draft
José Gaos › 1900–1969
María Zambrano taught
taught
Zambrano studied philosophy at the Central University of Madrid in the 1920s with Ortega, as well as with García Morente and Zubiri; she later developed her ‘poetic reason’ in dialogue with, and at a distance from, his ‘vital reason’. Her autobiographical Delirio y destino recounts these years. M. Zambrano, Delirio y destino (written 1952, printed 1989) (passage not checked)
Evidence: AI draft
María Zambrano › 1904–1991
Leopoldo Zea
influenced
Zea, a pupil of Ortega’s disciple Gaos, built his history of ideas on Ortega’s “I am I and my circumstance”: philosophy as reflection on one’s own historical circumstance, as in Positivism in Mexico (1943). L. Zea, El positivismo en México (1943); G. Bentivegna, “Zea, Ortega y Gasset y la circunstancia hispanoamericana”, Revista de Filosofía (Universidad Iberoamericana, 2017)
Evidence: AI draft
Leopoldo Zea › 1912–2004
Criticism
Criticizes 1
Miguel de Unamuno
criticised
Ortega rejected Unamuno’s defiant Hispanism – ‘let them invent’ – insisting that Spain must Europeanise through science (‘Unamuno y Europa, fábula’, 1909). J. Ortega y Gasset, “Unamuno y Europa, fábula”, El Imparcial, 1909; M. de Unamuno, “El pórtico del templo” (1906); SEP “José Ortega y Gasset”
Evidence: AI draft
Miguel de Unamuno › 1864–1936
Works
Ortega’s first book, which formulates “I am I and my circumstance” and calls for saving one’s circumstance by understanding it.
- 1923The Modern Theme
Sets out vital reason and perspectivism: every life sees the world from a unique point of view, and truth is the integration of perspectives.
Diagnoses the rise of the “mass man” who claims rights without recognising obligations, and argues for a united Europe.
Position
Ortega is on the map as the central figure of 20th-century Spanish philosophy and the founder of what is called the School of Madrid. From neo-Kantianism and Husserl’s phenomenology he moved to a philosophy of life: the radical reality is my life, the dealings of an I with its circumstance, summed up in 1914 in the formula “I am I and my circumstance”. Against both rationalism and vitalism he set a “vital reason”, later a “historical reason” that understands human beings through the story of what they have done; his late reading of Dilthey confirmed this direction. His perspectivism holds that every life sees a true but partial aspect of reality. Ortega claimed to have anticipated themes of Heidegger’s “Being and Time”, a claim scholars assess in different ways. “The Revolt of the Masses” made him known internationally; it has been read as a liberal defence of standards and as an elitist critique of mass democracy. His students Xavier Zubiri, José Gaos and María Zambrano took his thought in different directions, and through Gaos it shaped the history of ideas in Mexico (Leopoldo Zea). Critics point to the essayistic, unsystematic form of much of his work. His public silence during the Civil War and his return to Franco’s Spain have been judged critically, for instance by Gregorio Morán (1998); he held no office under the regime.
Life & context
José Ortega y Gasset was born on 9 May 1883 in Madrid into a family of journalists; his father edited the literary supplement of the newspaper “El Imparcial”. Educated by the Jesuits, he studied at Deusto and in Madrid, where he took his doctorate in 1904, and from 1905 to 1907 in Leipzig, Berlin and above all Marburg with the neo-Kantians Hermann Cohen and Paul Natorp. In 1910 he became professor of metaphysics at the University of Madrid. He wrote for the press throughout his life, helped found the daily “El Sol” in 1917 and in 1923 founded the “Revista de Occidente”, which published translations of German philosophy and science. In 1931 he co-founded the Group at the Service of the Republic and sat in the Constituent Cortes, but soon withdrew from politics. When the Civil War broke out in 1936 he left Spain and lived in Paris, the Netherlands, Argentina and from 1942 in Lisbon. From 1945 he spent time in Madrid again, where in 1948 he founded the Institute of Humanities with his student Julián Marías; he did not resume university teaching. In the 1950s he lectured in Germany, among other occasions at the Darmstadt colloquium of 1951, where Heidegger also spoke. He died in Madrid on 18 October 1955.
Further main works
- The Dehumanization of Art (La deshumanización del arte, 1925)
- Man and People (El hombre y la gente, posthumous, 1957)
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