A Comparison of Descartes, Ortega y Gasset, and Nietzsche
Comparison
Descartes vs. Ortega y Gasset
Descartes aims to achieve a certain knowledge base. The cause of pluralistic thought is not based on reason but on the method. Descartes is convinced that human reason, unique to all men, can arrive at the truth. The instrument to distinguish truth from falsehood will be reason. Descartes seeks a timeless, absolute knowledge, blind to historical events. Ortega changes this pure or utopian reason for a reason that arises from life itself: vital reason. The error of rationalism is to renounce life, inventing a subject alien to the concrete and historical. There is no objective and universal truth, as claimed by Descartes, but as Ortega said, every subject of knowledge reveals another facet of the whole truth. If Descartes’ starting point is the self, Ortega’s is life; we must incorporate reason into life. The role of reason is not to capture absolute realities, as Descartes thought, but to make sense of our surroundings.
For Ortega, Descartes’ Pure Reason would be false. Ortega proposes a reason that is able to integrate the perspectival dimension of reality, a vital and historic reason. Ortega coincides with Descartes that the starting point for philosophy is the subject, but unlike Descartes, it is not an isolated self but a self within its world. The Cartesian substance is considered an empty abstraction by Ortega because reality is life, and you have to choose between several possibilities since man has no nature, but history. The Cartesian principle “I think therefore I am” is no longer valid, but rather “I live, therefore I think.”
Context of Ortega
The life of Jose Ortega y Gasset is marked by the identity crisis that Spain suffered. The highlights of the period were the loss of Cuba, an increase of migrants from the countryside to the city, two world wars, the military coup of Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic and civil war, and Franco’s dictatorship. From the literary point of view came the Generation of ’98, a group of writers and thinkers. The common denominator of the Generation of 98 with Ortega was the concern for Spain. He actively participated in the regency as a journalist, philosopher, and politician.
As for Ortega’s philosophical background, neo-Kantianism and phenomenology stand out. Ortega writes at a point of analyzing the function of reason and philosophy as well as the validity of a model of science. He claims the value of the existence of a type of knowledge. His philosophy is called ratio-vitalism: reason is understood as a vital reason. Ortega, along with other intellectuals, creates what will be the embryo of current Spanish philosophy. The play The Theme of Our Time was published in 1923 as the culmination of perspectivism and opens the new era of rationalism. Ortega’s objective in this work is a renewal of philosophy that exceeds the gap between reason and life. The book is linked to the feeling that Spain was in a coma, and his ultimate goal is to go beyond rationalism, not by eliminating reason, but by denying its exclusivity.
Nietzsche
Philosophy of Suspicion
Nietzsche believes that the idea of Western culture is flawed. Thus, the most dangerous error is the introduction of rationality at any price, criticizing dogmatism, eliminating the pure spirit, etc. He accuses the world of idealism of being rational, which means the rejection of instincts. He also criticized idealistic morality and the acceptance of traditional values that give rise to the imposition of a slave morality. Finally, he charges against the idea of God.
His diagnosis is the consideration that accidental culture is a critique of this world and its values to invent another world whose characteristics are perfection, rationality, and the divine. The object of his philosophical activity will consist in finding out where the main ideas of culture and philosophy come from. Nietzsche finds that the history of philosophy is a lie because all theories and values were created by men and have no real basis in fact and objectivity; therefore, he believes that truth does not exist. So, Nietzsche’s starting point is the suspicion he posed on the mistaken path of humanity. Nietzsche’s philosophy will be an extreme denial of the past, a rejection of all traditions. Considering that socially shared truth is fiction, the important thing for life is not truth but life. His conclusion is that philosophical valuations are requirements that aim to preserve a certain kind of life. His work means a total critique of culture.
Philosophy of the Hammer
Nietzsche aims to describe and destroy accidental cultural forms. The image of the superman is a man hiding in stone. The philosophy of the hammer consists of denying and destroying, taking the form of a transmutation of values.
- Socrates: Ultimately responsible for the degradation of what were vital aspects of Greek civilization, Socrates introduces extreme rationality with too much intelligence.
- Platonic philosophy: Platonic philosophy was established by Plato accidentally, based on the existence of a perfect world. Dogmatic philosophy starts from the consideration of being as something static, a being that exists in its own world, different from the sensible world and its apparent reality. Thus, Nietzsche believes that the metaphysical being is the most abstract construction that man has ever imagined and does not amount to anything.
- Judeo-Christian morality and religion: Nietzsche believes that religion emerges from the terror that man feels about himself. The structural inability of man, who cannot further his own destiny when invaded by a feeling of power and overwhelmed by fear, attributes his destiny to another more powerful being through a pathological defense mechanism. Christianity, he believes, only promotes narrow values: obedience, sacrifice, and humility. Christianity means the destruction of all values of the Greek world, an assertion of weak values.