Translator's Introduction

Abstract

When in 1951, a Brazilian philosophical journal asked Jose Ortega y Gasset, (1883-1955) to write a series of articles concerning the then current state of philosophical affairs during the first fifty years of the 20th century, Ortega was already 68 years of age and had been suffering from stomach cancer since his 50's. Also, by time he had enjoyed a degree of fame, rare in philosophical circles, which was not restricted to Spain and Latin America, but that also included the United States and the rest of Western Europe. For instance, he was highly respected as a writer and thinker by Thomas Mann, and was referred to by Albert Camus as being Nietzsche, perhaps the greatest European writer. Ortega was a very visible figure, who during the early part of the century and leading up to the events of the Spanish Civil War had a great deal to say; and the most accessible media that he could employ, at the time, to accomplish task was the newspaper. His many and often diverse newspaper articles brought him considerable attention, both in philosophical circles and especially from the public--at--large. Whether attention came in the manner of criticism or approval is truly irrelevant. While the former may seem to be the case today, especially to academics, nevertheless, throughout his many articles he was to find an audience that would furnish him with the necessary feedback that was useful to him in testing his most pressing convictions. In respect, Ortega can also be credited with attempting to take the level of the journalism of his day to a more sensitive and profound awareness of intellectual concerns. He was of the view that newspapers should not merely be concerned with reporting the events of the day. For reason he founded, in 1923, a literary and philosophical journal titled Revista De Occidente, which even though it initially only enjoyed a short run, nevertheless received some degree of critical acclaim. In 1948, in keeping with his humanistic concerns, Ortega, along with the Spanish philosopher and disciple, Julian Marias, founded the Instituto de Humanidades in Madrid. Thus offer to write a snort history of philosophy, must have seemed to him like a timely opportunity to make his views on historical reason heard once again; especially given the fact that by that time he had already slipped from the forefront of philosophical thought in Spain, a position which he had held up to about the 1930's. Ortega is, after all, quite arguably after Miguel de Unamuno, Spain's best known thinker. He was a philosopher in search of the pole of the human condition. This is readily seen if one realizes that his newspaper articles were intended to bring the sphere of philosophical discourse to a general readership. Reflection, contemplation, and overall existential concerns were, in his estimation, the sole business and backbone of any genuine attempt at philosophizing. The problem, then, as he saw it, manifested itself in the form that: if philosophical reflection is the natural call of the thinker per se, vital, spontaneous life is the concern of all, alike. The synthesis of these two, seemingly odd poles was the inspiration of his life's work. The article, even though never completed, in fact, works well on two levels: as a brief history of philosophical thought during the first half of the twentieth century, it serves as a vital to Ortega's intellectual milieu. As he states in the article, this chronological trajectory coincides with my life; indeed, no one can tell me history given that it is my own existence. But eyewitness account can be rather misleading at first, given that Ortega does not begin his inquiry at the beginning of the twentieth century, but rather, in true Ortegan fashion, he proves to be evasive, often deviating from the point at hand, often pausing to interrupt himself with afterthoughts and asides, including a description of Hermann Cohen that was not entirely becoming to a thinker of his stature. …