Perspectivism: Ortega’s Theory of Knowledge
Perspectivism
Perspectivism, according to Ferrater Mora, is the first stage of Ortega’s thought. Other authors often speak of a previous stage, objectivism (1902-1910), a period of low philosophical output. In any case, perspectivism is the theory of knowledge that goes beyond rationalism (dogmatic) and relativism (subjectivism) that prevailed throughout the history of philosophy.
Rationalism, arguing that thinking completely coincides with being, was doomed to idealism. According to this view, human beings are rational by nature and, through their intellectual activities, reveal the universal and unchanging essence of things, valid for all times and for all. In this way, rationalism (idealistic and dogmatic) forgets the real and concrete.
Relativism, for its part, emphasizes the differences between the different subjects that know and the impossibility of knowing the truth. The human, the subject that thinks, is always singular and concrete. Each one has its truth, or rather, everyone has their own opinion. It does not overcome skepticism.
Ortega, faced with these opposing positions, asserts his perspectival theory. Neither idealism nor realism, neither rationalism nor relativism, neither idealism nor skepticism, but perspectivism.
Perspectivism, then, is Ortega’s theory of knowledge of reality that develops mainly in his work The Issue of Our Time, which suggests that there is no single absolute view of reality, but it consists of various complementary perspectives. When asked what is truth, what is reality, therefore, one should say it is neither only objective nor entirely subjective, but a synthesis between objectivity and subjectivity: the perspective that an individual has of the things around him.
Reality, on one hand, has an infinite perspective, all true and real. Humans, on the other hand, know from a given situation, from certain circumstances and with a timely perspective: where my view (my understanding, my feelings, my preferences, etc.) is not that of others. The self is a view that selects the prints. There are as many perspectives as individuals (each one of them enters the lives of everyone, with imagination, sensitivity, reason, desires, circumstances,…). Man’s reason to master the fact that his perspective and thus humanize offers: it is a vital reason, not opposed to life but develops at the same life.
The view is the only individual from which you can know the truth of the world. Reality appears to each according to the perspective you have. It occurs as a landscape depending on where you place yourself to contemplate. No one can capture the entire landscape: perspectives, different views are endless, all true and authentic, but each one contemplates the reality that he lives. So, everyone has a mission to find the truth. Nobody has all the truth, but each reason applies to life, and then the different views on a particular global articulator are joined together. Reality can only be offered in individual perspectives, which does not invalidate them, but makes them valuable, irreplaceable, and necessary for collaboration between them in their integration.
For Ortega, one can only know in perspective, that is, we can only know how a certain reality appears to us at a particular time. This is so because the perspective is one of the components of reality; it is presented in perspective. All perspectives are valid, but not the one that intends to become the “unique perspective.” From Ortega’s standpoint, the great error of rationalism was the belief that human reason could adopt an absolutely privileged attitude in the knowledge of reality and therefore be able to find the truth in itself. Rationalism had hoped to discover universal truths and principles that are totally disowned by simple living conditions. But modern philosophy is in crisis now, witnessing the beginning of a new stage of philosophy which claims to have overcome both ancient realism and modern idealism. Now knowledge and reality are like two sides of the same coin. Perspectivism affects both the subject and the object.
For Ortega’s perspectivism, there is nothing that can be conceptualized as the complete and absolute truth. On the contrary, the truth is something that needs to be conquered every day, by every person and every generation. The truth is the perspective that each individual, each generation, each historical period, each culture perceives reality. There is no single and absolute truth (except as the sum of perspectives). Pretending to achieve absolute truth is not to understand the historicity of reason.
According to these ideas, Ortega tells us that truth is always partial, which does not mean that it is relative, but that it is not complete. The complete truth cannot be reached; the universal and timeless truths proposed by rationalism and idealism are mere fictions, since human life is always concrete (mine, yours,…) and the subject of knowledge is always a human being (vital reason). Nothing can be known universally real. Only an abstract and utopian being could have this kind of knowledge, valid for all times and places, but people have to make do with historical, circumstantial, and perspectivistic knowledge.
In short, the theory of Ortega is an example of tolerance, both from the epistemological point of view and from the ethical-social: we accept the view of others, their perspective, as part of this long path of the conquest of truth.