Ortega — Phenomenologist

Abstract

At first sight, the work of Ortega y Gasset seems difficult to catalogue philosophically. An omnivorous reader, he sated his philosophical appetite in so heterogeneous a medley of thinkers that it would appear quite impossible to decide which of them most roundly influenced his intellectual trajectory. Ortega himself was never very wont to acknowledge debts or masters; on the contrary, he strove to figure as a thinker with an original philosophy of his own that could not be assimilated to any other. The disciples who followed him perhaps defended too jealously their master’s reputation for radical originality, possibly with the intention of adding to his prestige. The result was quite the reverse: for many years, Ortega’s image in his own country was that of a philosopher who was out of touch with the most vigorous philosophical trends current in Europe, that of an unthroned thinker remembered only by his Spanish disciples. In an anemic postwar Spain deprived of direction, Ortega offered a philosophy of reason rooted in vitality.

In der letzen Woche hatten wir einen sehr interessanten phil. Besuch: Ortega y Gasset, der uns eine grosse uberraschung brachte: Er ist ganz tief eingearbeitet in meine Schriften. Es gab mit u. F[ink] täglich grosse u. ernste Gespräche, seine Fragen in die schwierigsten Tiefe dringend. Er ist wirklich nicht nur als Publizist Erzieher des neuen Spanien, sondern als Professor Leiter einer Phä[nomenologischen] Schule. Jetzt wird von ihm eine übersetzung der Medit[ationen] erfolgen u. dann der übrigen Werke (die Log[ischen] Unters[uchungen] sind dort in der sp[anischen] Ausgabe in aller Händen), übrigens ein wundervoller Mensch.¹ Edmund Husserl; Briefe an R. Ingarden, LXXIII (26.11.1934)