Ortega y Gasset: Life, Reason, and Reality
Ortega: Life and Reason United
Ortega y Gasset’s central idea: Try life and reason together. He positions Realism (emphasizing nature) as subordinate to life, which in turn is subordinate to Idealism (emphasizing thought).
Philosophy vs. Science
Ortega observed that physics often dominates philosophy due to its perceived accuracy, foundation in empirical facts, and practical relevance. However, he defended philosophy, highlighting key differences:
- Philosophy must justify the existence of its own object, which is not simply given for study.
- Philosophy emphasizes universality, contrasting with the specialized bias of science.
- Philosophy aims for ultimate knowledge, whereas science provides penultimate knowledge.
Life as Fundamental Reality
Life is the foundational idea that remains when all theories or interpretations are removed. Ortega challenged static conceptions of reality found in both naive realism and idealism.
Critique of Naive Realism and Idealism
Naive Realism: Assumes things exist independently of thought without question. According to Ortega, the radical reality is not found in things themselves.
Idealism: Ortega surpasses idealism (in the Hegelian dialectical sense: negating yet preserving consciousness as the presenter of reality). His main criticisms include:
- He proposed a reform of the concept of ‘being’, arguing the static conception fails to grasp change, which is pure thought.
- He criticized the static substantialization of reality into the thinking self (Descartes’ “res cogitans”) and the static ontology of the Greeks.
- While agreeing with idealism that the external world is implied, Ortega disagreed that things exist merely as mental contents within my world.
- The self or consciousness is not the ultimate reality; the thinking self is an abstraction.
Conclusion: The radical fact of the universe is neither the independent cosmic being (naive realism) nor the separate thinking self (idealism), but rather the self with things.
Life as Coexistence: Self and World
This coexistence is the radical fact – not the isolated self or isolated things. This coexistence is necessary for my life. It precedes any theory and remains when abstractions are removed. My life is the task of the self interacting with things: “I am myself and my circumstances.”
The Cartesian problem of the “bridge” (how to connect the self to things) is a pseudo-problem because the self cannot be conceived without things.
Ortega offered a new idea of reality, distinct from static conceptions of being. Static views cannot comprehend life, which is a fleeting, constantly changing reality. For Ortega, reality is Heraclitean – life is constantly being made, pure change. Life has a biographical sense, not merely biological (unlike Nietzsche’s focus).
Ratio-vitalism: Vital Reason
Ratio-vitalism is one of Ortega’s theories for overcoming limitations in knowledge and reason.
- Against Rationalism: Ortega argued that abstract, mathematical reason (as championed by rationalism) is incapable of understanding life because it deals with fixed concepts, while life’s reality is constant flux.
- Reason as Vital Function: He rejected the “pure reason” of rationalism, asserting that reason is a vital function. It emerges from life and serves life’s purposes.
- Reason and Project: Confronting pure vitalism, Ortega defended the necessity of reason for anticipating and planning life’s project.
Perspectivism
Ortega’s perspectivism supports the objective value of the individual standpoint (a form of relativism). Furthermore, it moves beyond rationalism, which seeks a single, universal viewpoint. Perspectivism acknowledges the validity of multiple perspectives.