Ortega y Gasset

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer points out that philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset built up an original philosophical system, based on a few central concepts, like those of perspectivism and ratio-vitalism. The writer maintains that his ideas on religion and Christianity, seen in the larger context constituted by his ideas on life in general, are very interesting. Further, the writer notes that it can be said that the axis of Ortega y Gasset's system of thought is the concept of vitalism, or the idea that life in itself is the actual purpose for man's existence in the world, and not thinking as the idealists proposed. The writer concludes that Ortega y Gasset's main attempt is to create a philosophy that reveals life-reality, above anything else, and for this, man should find his new belief in history, since it is history that best discloses the patterns of human life.

From the Paper:

'However, according to Ortega y Gasset, it is not intellectualism as such that is wrong, but the separation of reason from vitality. This tendency is very common within the scientific domain and more particularly in modern science after Galileo, but also in Christian doctrine. Both science and religion are focused on something which is beyond the actual existence as such. As he proposes, science is only an ideal, something that cannot actually fulfill its purpose, and which does not give us the truth. The means by which science operates is that of the pure reason, which maintains itself in the realm of pure thought and idealism, and moreover manifests disdain for life as such. To this pure reason, Ortega y Gasset opposes the notion of vital reason, which is able to understand the value of life itself."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Graham, John T (2001) The Social Thought of Ortega Y. Gasset: A Systematic Synthesis in Postmodernism and Interdisciplinarity. Columbia: University of Missouri Press
• Ortega y Gasset, Jose.( 1998) Man and Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton
• -- The Modern Theme. (1961)New York: W. W. Norton

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