Ortega y Gasset’s Ratiovitalism: Reason, Life, and History
3.1. Ratiovitalism
Ratiovitalism, Ortega’s fundamental philosophical attitude, is a theory of knowledge that considers life—that knowledge is rooted in life. It attempts to overcome extremes: not only rationalism (Plato and Descartes), nor only irrational vitalism (Nietzsche), but finds a balance where reason and life are intimately related.
Ortega believed that rationalism somehow kills the story, stopping it by abstracting time. His ratiovitalism proposes a close union of reason and life, reason
Read MoreMarx and Nietzsche: A Critical Analysis of Power, Morality, and Alienation
Historical materialism.
2.2. In the social production of their existence, humans enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will; relations of production which correspond to a certain degree of development of material productive forces. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.
Read MorePhilosophical Perspectives on Human Existence and Governance
Sartre
Sartre believed that man is “condemned to be free,” meaning driven to action and fully responsible for it, without excuses. Sartre conceived of human existence as conscious existence. Man’s being is distinguished from the being of a thing by awareness. Human existence is a subjective phenomenon, in the sense that the world is consciousness and self-consciousness. The influence of Cartesian rationalism on Sartre is notable.
Hobbes
At the dawn of the modern age, the Italian philosopher Niccolò
Read MoreNietzsche’s Philosophy: Beyond Nihilism and the Death of God
Nihilism and the Death of God
For Nietzsche, society is plunged into a deep nihilism. He doesn’t see this as an end, but a challenge. Nihilism (which has different interpretations[3]) is the advent of repeated frustrations in the search for meaning. More precisely, it is the “devaluation of supreme values.” Nihilism, for Nietzsche, is the historical process that begins with the recognition of a supreme value and ends with the realization that this value, and many others, have become irrelevant.
Read MoreCausality and Human Understanding: A Humean Perspective
Hume’s Critique of Causality
What is Cause and Effect?
Is it a necessary connection between events? A universal law of nature? Or merely a belief based on human perception? Historically, philosophers like Plato and Aristotle argued that nothing happens without a cause. Plato believed everything exists for a reason, grounded in his theory of Forms. Aristotle posited that causes reside within the essence of things. Both agreed that a cause explains why something exists or occurs.
Theological Interpretations
Read MorePlato’s Theory of Education and the Ascent of the Soul
From Sensible to Intelligible
Plato’s allegory of the cave describes the ascent of the soul from the sensible to the intelligible world. This journey reflects Plato’s concept of education (paideia). The stages range from the chained prisoners (representing those uneducated) to those emerging from the cave after mathematical instruction, culminating in the philosophers who contemplate the intelligible world of Forms or Ideas. This ascent involves four levels of knowledge: imagination, belief, thought,
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