Classicism in Ortega y Gasset: between “culturalism” and “spiritual life”

Abstract

In this article I try to show that the concept of “classicism” has, from the first philosophy of Ortega, two opposing meanings that precede, on the one hand, the famous term “culturalism”, which the philosopher faces his vital reason; and, on the other hand, the expression "spiritual life", which, in the same raciovitalist period, gives its name to a culture embedded in life. It can be understood, not only that there is a continuity of ideas in the evolution of the concept of “classicism”, but that this concept receives, along the trajectory of Ortega, two opposing meanings and two different projections. This double consideration of classicism will allow us to make some reflections on the role that Neokantism played in Ortega's philosophical thinking, not only in the beginnings of his intellectual career, but also in the periods of maturity.