The Philosophy Book

242

LIFE IS A SERIES

OF COLLISIONS

WITH THE FUTURE

JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET (1883–1955)

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Ontology

APPROACH

Existentialism

BEFORE

1641 In his Meditations, René

Descartes argues that there

are two worlds: the world of

mind and the world of matter.

Early 1900s Edmund Husserl

establishes phenomenology. He

claims that philosophers must

look at the world anew, putting

all preconceptions aside.

AFTER

1920s Martin Heidegger

explores questions about what

our existence means for us,

citing Ortega as an influence.

1930s onward Ortega’s

philosophy becomes popular

in Spain and Latin America,

influencing philosophers

Xavier Zubiri, José Gaos,

Ignacio Ellacuría, and María

Zambrano, among others.

O

rtega y Gasset’s philosophy

is about life. He is not

interested in analyzing the

world in a cool and detached fashion.

Instead, he wants to explore how

philosophy can engage creatively

with life. Reason, Ortega believes,

is not something passive, but

something active—something that

allows us to get to grips with the

circumstances in which we find

ourselves, and allows us to change

our lives for the better.

In his Meditations on Quixote,

published in 1914, Ortega writes:

“I am myself and my circumstances.”

Descartes said that it was possible

to imagine ourselves as thinking

beings, and yet to doubt the

existence of the external world,

including our own bodies. But

Ortega says that it makes no sense

to see ourselves as separate from

the world. If we want to think

seriously about ourselves, we have

to see that we are always immersed

We are alwaysimmersed in

particular circumstances, such

as where we live, what we do,

and things we assume.

We can accept or reject these

circumstances, by imagining

new possibilities.

The new possibilities

collide with our current

circumstances.

Life is a series of

collisions with the future.