Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy of Existence in The Modern Theme

Abstract

The trajectory of Ortega y Gasset’s thought demonstrates the foundational importance of The Modern Theme to his ideas on philosophy of history, vital–reason and the existential categories in his work. Ortega explores the idea of subjectivity (interiority) in Meditations on Quixote (1914). By 1923, the year The Modern Theme was published, Ortega y Gasset understood that science and positivism attempt to explain the universe, including human life, in mechanical terms. Ortega y Gasset realized the importance of reining in bloated hyper–rationalism. The Modern Theme sets up Ortega y Gasset’s idea of life as biographical existence, not merely biological life, especially in light of modernity.