5 most important books by ORTEGA y GASSET

In today's class we are going to talk about the most outstanding books of the most important Spanish philosopher of the 20th century, Jose Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955). Who wrote about 40 works, among which are: Don Quixote Meditations (1914), The invertebrate Spain (1921) or the Rebelion of the mass (1929).

All of them are distributed along their three stages of thought (objectivism, perspectivism and ratiovitalism) and directly influenced the writers of the Generation of 27 and contemporary Spanish and Latin American philosophy. If you want to know more about the most important books of Ortega y Gasset, he continues reading because in a PROFESOR we explain everything to you.

Index

1. What was the thought of Ortega y Gasset?
2. 5 most important books by Ortega y Gasset
3. What does the phrase I am and my circumstances mean?
4. What did Ortega y Gasset do?

The philosophical thought of Ortega y Gasset evolved throughout his life and, for this reason, it is usually divided into three main stages:

Objectivism, 1902-1914

It is the first stage of his (youth) of him and is the result of his stay in Germany after obtaining a doctorate in philosophy in Madrid. In this he will be very influenced by the neo-kantians and the phenomenologyfrom Husserl.

This philosophical moment is characterized by the shock it suffers when comparing the intellectual life and science of Spain with that of Germany. Which will make him say that Spain needs a regeneration, more discipline and rigor in the face of the absence of method, the gap, subjectivism and individualism Typically Spanish.

In this way, Ortega y Gasset will give you a great importance toscience and object of study as the only true thing because it is the one that allows us to contrast things. That is why he denies subjectivism, because it is what makes us enter into fantasies and daydreams, deviating from central objective. As our protagonist would say: “A mathematical theorem is more valuable than all the employees of a Ministry”.

Perspectivism, 1914-1923

In this second philosophical stage, Ortega y Gasset, wonders about: What is knowledge? What is reality? What is truth... And he tells us that throughout history different currents and philosophical conceptions such as skepticism, dogmatism, criticism, objectivism or relativism have tried to give an unsuccessful answer to these questions. Therefore, he proposes what he defines as perspectivism, which is based on the following basic ideas of it:

• Every human being knows reality according to his point of view and all knowledge is subject to that point of view or perspective.
• The truth exists, but we cannot get to know it if we do not make a sum of all perspectives, that is, if we want to know the true truth of a question, we must know the different versions of said question.
• In a perspective, several perspectives can converge, that is, different points of view of different people. Therefore, every perspective is valuable (we are unique beings) and the only false perspective is the one that tries to be unique.
• In the correct understanding of reality, knowledge and reality, two essential elements are involved: the subject (what he knows) and the object (the known).

Finally, it should be noted that in this perspectivist stage two of his most important works stand out: Don Quixote Meditations (1914) and Spain Invertebrate (1921)

Raciovitalism, 1923-1955

With this stage of maturity, our protagonist tries to overcome the vitalism and rationalism, as well as, unify the concepts of reason and life. Therefore, he establishes that the reality of life is a chaos that we must order with a scheme and that we establish that order through the vital reason: A reason that is not absolute (physical-mathematical), but historical Y narrative, which is necessary to understand human life and which is the tool with which we build descriptions to orient ourselves and approach the human world.

Likewise, to explain what ratiovitalism is, Ortega y Gasset will use the metaphor of the castaway: Our understanding would be the arms of the castaway, thinking would be like swimming for the castaway and being would be the raft that the castaway builds with his surroundings. As he would say:

“To live is to find yourself shipwrecked between things and at every moment we have to make decisions”.

Finally, it should be noted that within this ratiovitalist stage three of his most important works stand out: The topic of our time (1923), The dehumanization of art (1925) and the Rebelion of the mass (1929).

Ortega y Gasset stood out for being a profuse writer, in fact, he was director of the newspaper Spain (1915), regular contributor to the newspaper Sun (1917) and founder of the West Magazine (1923). In these he published part of his works and echoed the most important philosophical currents of his time.

Likewise, he wrote about 40 works, of which, here we explain the 5 most important books by Ortega y Gasset.

Don Quixote Meditations, 1914

It is the first (unfinished) book published by our protagonist and it is an essay that is made up of the following parts

• Foreword: The reader is introduced to the central thesis of the work
• Preliminary Meditation: Exposes the analysis method of it.
• First Meditation: Treatise on the novel
• How Miguel Cervantes used to see the world? (Not published).
• The alcionismo in Cervantes (not published).

What stands out about this work is that it is one of the most representative of Ortega y Gasset's perspectivism. In it, he already establishes that the perspective is a component of reality and the idea of ​​circumstance as a key element to interpret reality. Likewise, in this he exposes the problem of Spain's backwardness and establishes that his subjectivismand his idiosyncrasy (way of being) are their main evils.

invertebrate spain, 1921

invertebrate spain is another of Ortega y Gasset's most important books. This work exposes and analyzes the social and political crisis that Spain was experiencing in the 1920s, the result of what is defined as historical invertebrate. which is divided into three types of evil or errors:

1. surface layer: The errors of religious fanaticism, political abuses and defective governments.
2. intermediate layer: The errors of disintegration and particularism; separatist movements and specialization of guilds.
3. deep layer: The errors inserted in the soul of the country or national; hate, envy, concept of artificial homeland…

The topic of our time, 1923

With this work, Ortega y Gasset delves into ratiovitalism and makes a whole series of criticisms of philosophical currents such as skepticism, dogmatism, criticism, objectivism or relativism. Announcing, on the other hand, the necessary philosophy reform through the vital reason. In addition, it establishes the following ideas:

• The human vitality has two faces: the biological and the spiritual.
• The reason is only one function and way of life.
• The theme of our time is to subject reason to vitality: "Pure reason has to cede its empire to vital reason."
• life is constantchange-development, that is, it is inserted in history.
• Living consists in dealing with what is not life, that is, understand possible life forms.

The dehumanization of art, 1925

The dehumanization of art stands as the work that deviates the most from the philosophical theses of our protagonist. And it is that with this, Ortega y Gasset enters the aesthetic-literary analysis of his time (marked by avant-garde art / Generation of 27) and establishes that the art for minorities. Characterized by:

• The originality and innovation.
• Hermeticism or difficult to interpret
• Anti-realism, anti-romanticism and surrealism.
• dream writing and predominance of insignificance and metaphor.
• Rupture with the logical links

the Rebelion of the mass, 1929

We end this review of the most important books by Ortega y Gasset with the Rebelion of the mass, a work of social and political court (published in full rise of totalitarian governments), where our protagonist coins the term man-mass: An individual introduced in the crowd/mass which loses its own identity, becoming part of the functioning of a group and which is easily steerable Y manipulable.

“This mass-man is the man previously emptied of his own history, without the entrails of the past and, therefore, docile to all the so-called international disciplines. More than a man, he is just a shell of a man made up of mere idola fori; lacks an "inside"

This is the Ortega y Gasset's best-known phrase and we can read it in his book Meditations on Quixote, that is, it belongs to his perspetivist stage. And with it, what he wants to explain to us is that perspective is a component of reality.

To do this, we have to go to what he defines as circumstance. And it is that, according to this philosopher, a circumstance is everything that is part of our world, but that we have not chosen (year of birth, parents, sex, language, hair color...) and the one that saves us (the one that allows us to live in a environment/reality). That is, my circumstance builds my perspective from which I know-build reality and from which I seek meaning in what surrounds me and in reality. As Ortega y Gasset would say:

"I am me and my circumstance, and if I don't save her, I don't save myself."

Likewise, Gasset tells us that the circumstance constitutes the private perspective of our reality and that this perspective is the one that appears when we organize what we we see Y we perceive from reality.

One of the main contributions of Ortega y Gasset was to develop the philosophy of his time, becoming the greatest exponent of perspectivism and ratiovitalism. From where he tried to respond to great dilemmas such as reality, truth and eating. Therefore, the thought of Ortega y Gasset influenced the philosophical renewal at the national and international level.

On the other hand, with several of his works influenced the theses of other social disciplines: With his work The dehumanization of art influenced the literature, with The Rebelion of the mass influenced the sociology and social anthropologyl, with invertebrate Spain influenced the history and with the Anastasio Ovejero Seminary influenced the Social psychology (constructivism).

If you want to read more articles similar to Ortega y Gasset: most important books, we recommend that you enter our category of Philosophy.

Garagorri, P. (1983). Complete works of Ortega y Gasset. Alliance.