The “Hypothesis of Ortega”

Abstract

The paper describes the creation, by Cole and Cole, two American science sociologists and the evolution of the so-called Ortega Hypothesis that came from a false interpretation of Ortega's thought, as it was expressed in The Revolte of the Masses. According to Cole and Cole, Ortega sta­ted that the scientific progress is the result of the work of a mass of scientists. All of these were re­fused by the citation analysis. In fact, Ortega ne­ver said that, as it is shown by other authors. In spite of this misunderstanding, it is interesting to state that the Ortega Hypothesis is one of the more cited tapies in the bibliometric field, just after the Lot­ka-Price Law. Anyway, it is outstanding the misuse of the Ortega hypothesis in the Spanish biblio­metric field, although there is the great dissemination of cite analysis, and it is a proof in a contraris sen­so of the prestige of Ortega outside Spain, who is used as an authority despite it would be far a false theory.