Ortega y Gasset's Philosophy: Key Concepts

Key Concepts in Ortega y Gasset's Philosophy

Ideas

One of the two main contributions of Ortega's philosophical doctrine (the other being beliefs). Ideas are thoughts that humans specifically construct. We are not inseparably connected with them (as with beliefs), so we can formulate, discuss, and refute them. Ideas are the tools by which philosophical creation advances.

Razón Vital (Vital Reason)

An instance that can grasp, as it is, the concrete reality that is human life (the existence of each individual). Abstract reason, which traditional rationalism proclaims, necessarily fails to address the instability, temporality, and historicity of human life. This is why Ortega claimed a specific razón that meets the special features of that reality: vital reason.

Doubt

A mental state of crisis produced due to the loss of faith in traditional beliefs. In such a situation, further attempts arise to acquire new certainties: the human being should use thinking to build ideas that will guarantee the security of life. Doubt, in this sense, encourages philosophical activity.

Raciovitalismo (Ratiovitalism)

The name given to Ortega's philosophical system. As the term suggests, it stems from efforts to overcome the deficiencies of vitalism and the awkwardness of rationalism. Ratiovitalism is based on the fundamental reality found in humans (life) and the rational attempt to understand the situation arising from that reality.

Vitalism

A philosophical vision whereby traditional rational philosophy is incapable of grasping the foundation of reality, i.e., the flow of life. Ortega builds his own system, called ratiovitalism, for which he has to move away from other models of vitalism.

Truth

The ratio at which the image that reality gives us coincides with the ideas we have of it. The philosophy of objectivism is to acquire knowledge about the world and therefore appropriate the truth. In this sense, philosophy appears as a continuous approximation to the truth, an effort that has no end. Ortega opposes the concept of truth defended by rationalism; in accordance with the doctrine of perspectivism, we are obliged to accept as many truths as there are points of view on life.