A brilliant examination of the twentieth century predicament in the light of the shift in Rome from paganism to Christianity and the transition from the static world of the Middle Ages to the expanding one of the Renaissance.

Senor Ortega y Gasset has contributed a thoughtful and a careful analysis of our present situation. If he is correct, then nationalism and liberalism as we have known them in the past are doomed. A new and perhaps a better order and conditioning of life are on the way. This book attempts to justify historically the coming of great change the same great change that was prophesied by William Morris in England, more than half a century ago. The New York Times"

The distinguished philosopher explores the foundations of sociology and makes a fresh examination of the meaning of society.

A work powerful and pervading in its implications not only for metaphysics but also for art, political science, and the philosophy of history.

The prospectus that announced the creation of The Institute of the Humanities promised an inaugural course of twelve lectures, to be given by its founder and entitled, Concerning a New Interpretation of International History. (Exposition and Examination of A. J. Toynbee s work, A Study of History.) But the course as given (in 1948-49) went much farther than that announcement, for the examination consisted principally of a critique of Toynbee s work from the point of view of Ortega s own doctrines, together with the unfolding of his personal ideas about the science of history and the progress...

As the editor, Paulino Garagorri, points out, the text here translated was essentially a transcription of two cycles of lectures that Ortega gave. Clearly they were delivered, as was his custom, from notes based on the intricate filing system that he used. Thus the resulting text was the record of an oral, extempore presentation from scant notes, with one or two passages read from printed or written works.

Appearing in English for the first time, this book comprises two of Ortega's most important works, Que es conocimiento? and the essay "Ideas y creencias." This is Ortega's attempt to systematically present the foundations of his metaphysics of human life and, on that basis, to provide a radical philosophical account of knowledge. In so doing, he criticizes idealism and overcomes it. Accordingly, this book goes well beyond a treatise on epistemology; in fact, as understood in modern philosophy, this discipline and its questions are shown to be derivative and, in that sense, they are...

2012 Reprint of 1957 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Ortega y Gasset's influence was considerable, not only because many sympathized with his philosophical writings, but also because his writings did not require that the reader be well read in technical philosophy. Among those strongly influenced by Ortega y Gasset were Luis Bunuel, Manuel Garcia Morente, Xavier Zubiri, Ignacio Ellacuria, Emilio Komar, Jose Gaos, Luis Recasens Siches, Manuel Granell, Francisco Ayala, Maria Zambrano, Agustin Basave, Pedro Lain Entralgo, John...

2012 Reprint of 1921 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Spanish Language edition. Through a series of ""essays in intellectual love,"" Ortega explores the aim of philosophy: to carry a given fact (a person, a book, a landscape, an error, a sorrow) by the shortest route to its fullest significance. He then considers how literature, specifically Cervantes, contributes to realizing this aim. Arguing that ""we are all heroes in some measure,"" that ""heroism lies dormant everywhere as a possibility,"" and that ""the will to be...