The "Vital and Historical Reason" of José Ortega y Gasset

THE "VITAL AND HISTORICAL REASON" OF JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET Introductory Note José Ortega y Gasset was born in Madrid in 1883. He received his licentiate in PhilosophyandLetters in 1902, and his doctorate in 1904, at theUniversity ofMadrid. In 1905 he went to Germany where he studied at the Universities of Leipzig, Berlin and Marburg. At the latter university he was a pupil of the neo-Kantian, Hermann Cohen. Between 1910 and 1936 he was a professor of metaphysics at the University of Madrid. Since then he has lived in France, Holland, Argentina, Portugal and Spain. The literary production of Ortega is extensive. The most important of his writings are Meditaciones del Quijote (1914); El Espectador (in 8 volumes, 1916—1934) ; España Invertebrada (1921) ; El Tema de Nuestro Tiempo (1923); Las Atlántidas (1924); La Deshumanización del Arte e Ideas sobre la Novela (1925) ; Kant (1924—29) ; La Rebelión de las Masas (1930) ; Misión de la Universidad (1930) ; Guillermo Dilthey y la Idea de¡a Vida (1933) ; En torno a Galileo (1933) ; Ensimismamiento y Alteración (1939); Meditación de la Técnica (1939); Ideas y Creencias (1940); Apuntes sobre el Pensamiento: Su Teurgia y su Demiurgia (1941); Del Imperio Romano (1941); "Prólogos" to Historia de la Filosofía, by Emile Bréhier (Spanish translation by Demetrio Nañez, I94i),to Veinte Años de Caza Mayor, by Conde de Yebes (1942), and to Aventuras del Capitán Alonso de Contreras (1943); countless articles, addresses, etc. There exist today two editions of his complete works. The first was published in 1947, the second in 1952. There is also a 1936 edition which is not really complete. We shall use the second edition : José Ortega y Gasset, Obras Completas, seg. edición (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1952). This article deals only with Ortega's concept of the "vital and historical reason". According to Ortega, human hie is the radical reality, because every other reality must appear within it, must be rooted in it. To live is to have to struggle unceasingly with the difficulties which the 60 /. Ortega y Gasset6? environment offers; it is to have to choose and make one's very existence every instant. The being of man and the being of nature do not coincide completely. What is natural in man is realized by itself. But, by the same token, he does not acknowledge it as his true being. On the other hand, his extra-natural being consists in a project or program of Ufe. This project or program is our true being, our personality, our ego. Life is the effort to carry out this project within the given circumstance. (Circumstance, in singular, means in Ortega everything except the ego; even our body and soul form part of the circumstance). Life is not something static; it is drama, "substantial" change. In other words, life is essentially time, history. Hence historical reason is the only one able to grasp that radical reality which is life and through it all other reality. We shall refer chiefly to the writings of Ortega after 1933. Since that year, more or less, his thought has not undergone any great evolution and appears basically unchanged. In setting forth his ideas never abandoned nor essentially changed, we shall make use of any and all of his books, whichever may better discuss them, regardless of date of publication. In the exposition we shall use the direct method; it will be Ortega who will be speaking. One of the favorite arguments of those devoted to Ortega against those who criticize his ideas is that he has not been understood. The critical notes which I have appended to this article may induce them to make such a statement about my exposition. Nevertheless, I warn the reader that Ortega is understood easily; if there are in his works concepts which are unintelligible, it is easy to understand that they are unintelligible. This conclusion is not based upon any extrinsic reason, like that which denies philosophical depth to Ortega's books because they are translated by women, but rather upon the reading of the books themselves: Ortega's ideas are not excessively deep; besides, he...