Ratio-Vitalism: The Intellectual Journey of Ortega y Gasset

Philosophical Roots and European Influences

José Ortega y Gasset's reasoning regarding life was influenced in part by the Jesuits. He captured the regenerationist momentum and the European Krausism inherited and promoted by the authors of the Generation of '98. Krausism was predominant at the University of Madrid during Ortega's formative years. Karl Christian Friedrich Krause was a German philosopher who followed Kant but thought differently from idealists like Hegel and Unamuno.

The Marburg School and Kantian Thought

In response to Miguel de Unamuno's casticismo, Ortega championed Europeanization. He studied in Germany at the Marburg School, where he assimilated the teachings of the Neo-Kantians. Regarding this period, he stated: "For years I lived in the world of thought as a Kantian. I breathed that atmosphere; it was both my birth and my imprisonment."

Ratio-Vitalism and Perspectivism

His philosophical system was called Ratio-vitalism, which was an attempt to convert Kant's Pure Reason into Vital Reason. During his youth, he read Nietzsche, which led him to the vitalism of perspectivism. Although he opposed phenomenalism and subjectivism, the first stage of his work was influenced by the objectivism of Edmund Husserl. Husserl's motto was "go to the things themselves," which resembles Ortega's own sentiment: "Salvemos las cosas" (Let us save things).

Historicism and Existentialism

Also present in Ortega's texts is Wilhelm Dilthey's historicism, with its focus on history and historical reason. He was further influenced by thinkers such as Renan and Toynbee. Ortega acknowledged that Martin Heidegger deepened the analysis of human existence as a project and anguish, which echoed Ortega's own view of "life as fatality in freedom."

The School of Madrid and Global Legacy

Ortega's impact was immense as he worked to divulge scientific knowledge, including the theory of relativity and psychoanalysis. He also focused on art, the novel, technology, and bullfighting. Alongside Unamuno, he was one of the greatest Spanish philosophers of the first half of the 20th century. From his work arose the School of Madrid, a group of intellectuals who shared a need to develop philosophy in Castilian and legitimize Spanish intellectual history.

Many influenced by Ortega emigrated to the Americas after the Spanish Civil War, which allowed Ortega's work to spread across the Atlantic. His influence also reached Germany, France, Holland, and Portugal, though he was somewhat ignored in Spain until the 1960s. While he received criticism for his aristocratic elitism, Ortega y Gasset remains the most popular and renowned Spanish philosopher internationally.