José Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish philosopher and essayist. He worked during the first half of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship. His philosophy has been characterized as a "philosophy of life" that comprised "a long-hidden beginning in a pragmatist metaphysics" inspired by William James and with a general method from a realist phenomenology imitating Edmund Husserl, which served both his proto-existentialism, and his realist historicism, which has been compared to both Wilhelm Dilthey and Benedetto Croce.