“A life hits the mark when it is lived towards, with and of the most fundamental of whatever events and ideas are abroad in the world at that particular moment. It is useless for you to be an admirable person if you do not live what is fundamental in your epoch. In order to achieve this, your life has to stop sliding across the world ... it must, on the contrary, sink its teeth into it."
#OrtegayGasset to his friend #VictoriaOcampo in 1930
#philosophy

"To live is to feel oneself lost–he who accepts it has already begun to find himself...Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, & that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life...He who does not really feel himself lost, is lost without remission...he never finds himself, never comes up against his own reality." #OrtegayGasset #philosophy

"For life is at the start a chaos in which one is lost. The individual suspects this, but he is frightened at finding himself face to face with this terrible reality, and tries to cover it over with a curtain of fantasy, where everything is clear. It does not worry him that his “ideas” are not true, he uses them as trenches for the defense of his existence, as scarecrows to frighten away reality."

Ortega y Gasset pre-empting Sartrean bad faith?

#OrtegayGasset #philosophy

"The whole world – nations and individuals – is demoralized. For a time this demoralization rather amuses people, and even causes a vague illusion."

(Continuing with my Ortega y Gasset binge)

#OrtegayGasset #philosophy

Ortega y Gasset on the difference between a fool and a sensible person: "The [sensible person] is constantly catching himself within an inch of being a fool; hence he makes an effort to escape from the imminent folly, and in that effort lies his intelligence. The fool, on the other hand, does not suspect himself; he thinks himself the most prudent of men, hence the enviable tranquillity with which the fool settles down, instals himself in his own folly" #philosophy #OrtegayGasset

"Physical space and time are the absolutely stupid aspects of the universe"
- Ortega y Gasset telling it like it is

#OrtegayGasset #philosophy #existentialism

Obsessing over #OrtegayGasset explaining how #Heidegger was unoriginal:

"I am obliged to say that I owe Heidegger very little. Of Heidegger’s important concepts, but one or two at most have not been previously expressed in one of my books, sometimes thirteen years earlier... I confine myself to making these remarks once & for all, since from time to time I find myself surprised that not even those who are closest to me have the faintest idea of what I have thought and written" #philosophy

Anyone know the back story about why Hans Breider named the grape variety "Ortega" after Ortega y Gasset?

#OrtegayGasset #philosophy #existentialism

Looking for something to get excited about with José Ortega y Gasset.

If you have any fun & interesting stories / anecdotes / examples (biographical or philosophical) about Ortega y Gasset, would love to hear!

#OrtegayGasset #philosophy #existentialism