José Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), Spanish writer and philosopher, noted for his humanistic criticism of modern civilization. Born in Madrid, and educated at the universities of Madrid and Marburg, Ortega was appointed Professor of Metaphysics at the University of Madrid in 1910. His articles, lectures, and essays on philosophical and political issues contributed to a Spanish intellectual renaissance in the first decades of the 20th century and to the fall of the Spanish monarchy in 1931. He was a member from 1931 to 1933 of the Cortes (Spanish parliament) that promulgated the republican constitution. After the outbreak of the Spanish civil war in 1936 he lived abroad, returning to Spain in the late 1940s.

Ortega's reflections on the problems of modern civilization are contained in The Revolt of the Masses (1930; trans. 1932), a work that earned him an international reputation. In it he decries the destructive influence of mass-minded, and therefore mediocre, people, who, if not directed by the intellectually and morally superior minority, encourage the rise of totalitarianism. His writings include The Modern Theme (1923; trans. 1933), Invertebrate Spain (1921; trans. 1937), The Dehumanization of Art (1925; trans. 1948), and Some Lessons in Metaphysics (published posthumously, 1970; trans. 1970).