5 Lessons from Ortega y Gasset

By: Oswald Sobrino

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The Spanish existentialist philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) lectured on metaphysics at the University of Madrid in the nineteen thirties. 5 Lessons from Ortega comments on five distinctive passages in his published university lectures on metaphysics and invites the reader to further explore the philosophical writings of Ortega y Gasset. All passages are directly translated from the original Spanish. Ortega provides an original perspective on metaphysics (the philosophical study of ultimate reality or being) that is clear, incisive, and understandable unlike the works of some other European existentialists. The book considers various themes developed by Ortega on metaphysics: the need for metaphysics, the nature of life, the role of circumstance, metaphysics as task, and defining reality. This is the fourth book in the series 5 Lessons from Great Thinkers that also includes books on St. Augustine, Seneca, and St. Paul.

For further insights on Ortega y Gasset, see the following series also by Oswald Sobrino: Freedom and Circumstance (2011), Philosophy in Don Quixote (2015), Technology and Human Existence (2019), and Mass Mentality: Updating Ortega's Revolt of the Masses (2019).

narration was surprisingly good

This gives pithy, but still usable review of a thorny and vvery complicated topic. Well done.