Circostanzialità della vita umana e libertà tra José Ortega y Gasset e Julián Marías

To Julián Marías (1914-2005) we must recognize the contribution of philosophy which, sensitive to the crisis of the European conscience of the early twentieth century, focuses on the theme of human life in its most concrete dimensions : temporality, political commitment, freedom, love. Though aware of the crisis of reason, he conceives philosophy as an existential commitment to the search for truth. Pupil of José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), takes with it and integrates a central anthropological category in the teacher’s thought : that of “circumstance”, the essential frame of human freedom, for which the character of Don Quixote, one of the most famous classics of Iberian culture, provides valuable suggestions. The thought of Ortega and Marías has largely influenced the development of Hispanic-American philosophical reflection, particularly in Argentina, Chile and Mexico, both directly, thanks to travels and stays in those countries ; through some of their teachers, as Manuel García Morente in Argentina and José Gaos in Mexico, or by means their pupils, as Francisco Romero in Argentina and Francisco Soler in Chile.