Noção de circunstância no raciovitalismo de Ortega y Gasset

Abstract

The dissertation on “The notion of circumstance in the ratiovitalism of Ortega y Gasset” develops fundamentally the concept of circumstance as an essential category in the comprehension of the Ortegan ratiovitalism. In the first chapter, it begins with a brief historical report, defending the idea that the work of the philosopher is, by nature, circumstantial, and that the philosophical content present in this concept derives from the problem of unbalance between Spain and the other European countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the next chapter, one meets the question posed by Marías, which is the relation between circumstance and Metaphysics. Reality bases itself on the radical reality, which is one’s own life, and life constitutes itself necessarily in the involvement with circumstance, thus developing into a perspective view that considers circumstance as an element of humanity. To understand man as a being with its circumstance implies considering that human life is a process that goes between authenticity and alteration, with the possibility of humanization. Man, as the protagonist of his life, takes possession of circumstance as a vital element for his existence, but this same circumstance, integrated to life, may assume another dimension. Ortega y Gasset understands that circumstance is always alteration, and, thus, escapes the original dimension of human. It happens that man, for being a quehacer, may mingle with circumstance. That means man can, through an absolute speech, identify himself with some circumstantial element, recognizing his own being in it. The mass-man is the prototype of this man, that, being altered, leaves the state of being with his circumstance to turn into the circumstance itself. In this way, it is considered that the concept of circumstance is a key-concept to comprehending the Ortegan work.