Camus’ praise of Ortega y Gasset reflects similarities in their understanding of the role of the intellectual in society. This includes political discourse and the resistance to totalitarianism and the mindset that it involves. Drawing fundamentally on The Revolt of the Masses and Morbid Democracy, the author underlines the life enhancing role of philosophy.
Author
Ramin Jahanbegloo, Professor, Jindal Global Law School, Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India
Summary
This article compares José Ortega y Gasset and Albert Camus as modern “Socratic gadflies” who challenge societies to examine their lives. Both feared that Europe was sliding into mass conformity and rejected the belief that progress is inevitable. Ortega warned against an “over-stimulated” democracy and the rise of the mass man, and he called for philosophy as a living dialogue with one’s circumstances. Camus began from the absurd and proposed revolt grounded in justice, solidarity and a distrust of ideology. The author argues that the two thinkers converge in condemning totalitarianism and in defending the individual’s capacity to give meaning to life. For both, thinking is a public, ethical act and the best response to violence and nihilism.
Published in: Revista de Estudios Orteguianos
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