Two sets of previously untranslated lectures given by Ortega in the early 1940s form the basis of this volume. They deal with Western man’s need for the new species of thought that Ortega designates as “historical reason.” As the editor, Paulino Garagorri, points out, the text here translated was essentially a transcription of two cycles of lectures that Ortega gave. Clearly they were …
The seventeenth century saw a major revolution in our ways of thinking about such issues as the method appropriate to philosophy and science, the relation between mind and body, the nature of substance, and the place of humanity in nature. While not neglecting the lesser but still influential figures, such as Arnauld and Malebranche, John Cottingham focuses primarily on the three great "rationa…