José Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset
Ortega y Gasset in the 1920s
Born	9 May 1883 Madrid, Spain
Died	18 October 1955(1955-10-18) (aged 72) Madrid, Spain
Alma mater	University of Deusto Complutense University of Madrid
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Perspectivism Pragmatism Vitalism Historism Existentialism Existential phenomenology Lebensphilosophie (philosophy of life) Neo-Kantianism (early) Liberalism Noucentisme
Main interests	History, reason, politics
Notable ideas	Metaphysics of vital reason
Influences Hermann Cohen, Wilhelm Dilthey,Paul Natorp, Friedrich Nietzsche, Max Scheler, C. S. Peirce,Edmund Husserl, Miguel de Unamuno
Influenced Julián Marías, María Zambrano, Antonio Machado, Mario Vargas Llosa, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Alain de Benoist, José Gaos, Xavier Zubiri, Generation of '27, Graham Harman, Olavo de Carvalho

José Ortega y Gasset (Spanish: [xoˈse orˈteɣa i ɣaˈset]; 9 May 1883 – 18 October 1955) was a Spanish liberal philosopher, and essayist. He worked during the first half of the 20th century, while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism, and dictatorship. His philosophy has been characterized as a "philosophy of life" that "comprised a long-hidden beginning in a pragmatist metaphysics inspired by William James, and with a general method from a realist phenomenology imitating Edmund Husserl, which served both his proto-existentialism (prior to Martin Heidegger's) and his realist historicism, which has been compared to both Wilhelm Dilthey and Benedetto Croce."

José Ortega y Gasset was born 9 May 1883 in Madrid. His father was director of the newspaper El Imparcial, which belonged to the family of his mother, Dolores Gasset. The family was definitively of Spain's end-of-the-century liberal and educated bourgeoisie. The liberal tradition and journalistic engagement of his family had a profound influence in Ortega y Gasset's activism in politics.

Ortega was first schooled by the Jesuit priests of San Estanislao in Miraflores del Palo, Málaga (1891–1897). He attended the University of Deusto, Bilbao (1897–98) and the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the Central University of Madrid (now Complutense University of Madrid) (1898–1904), receiving a doctorate in Philosophy. From 1905 to 1907, he continued his studies in Germany at Leipzig, Nuremberg, Cologne, Berlin and, above all Marburg. At Marburg, he was influenced by the neo-Kantianism of Hermann Cohen and Paul Natorp, among others.