Ortega, an interpreter of Husserl

Abstract

In this brief essay, we pretend to give an account of how the Husserlian phenomenology influenced the thought of Jose Ortega y Gasset much more deeply than the Spanish thinker counsciously considered. In fact, we know that Ortega declares a comprehension of the phenomenology and its immediate superseding. We consider that such superseding is only nominal and not occurring effectively, because the most original developments of the Ortegian thought are impregnated with the Husserlian phenomenology, much more than with the subsequent Heideggerian interpretations as Ortega believed and declared. We present this hypothesis using initially the interpretations and studies the important Spanish phenomenologist Javier San Martín has brilliantly undertaken on this subject, interpretations which we agree to a large extent, even before directly known. This demonstrates the plausibility of our hypothesis that focuses in showing the force of the Orteguian reception of the very idea of phenomenology directly absorbed from Husserl. Subsequently, we provide an example of a common problem that is phenomenologically discussed by both authors, namely, the definition of the idea of Europe, an old and current controversy at the same time in Western philosophy that did not escaped their notice. Throughout the analysis of the philosophical view of Europe, in one and the other, we discovered coincidences between Ortega, Husserl’s reader, and the latter as the undisputed master of a thinker that will profoundly affect the spanish language philosophy.