Was Rand influenced by Jose Ortega y Gasset?

I'm interested in a Spanish philosopher called Jose Ortega y Gasset, and in particular a book of his called The Revolt of the Masses.

I found a couple of quotes from him that are wonderful, and extremely reminiscent of Rand in his writing style:

..How an individual influences his circumstances is his creative action ('que hacer vital')...The hero...creates the noble life by exerting his will to go beyond the ordinary...The opposite of the hero, the mass man, is content with his own mediocrity and relies on opinion rather than reason...Though each individual sees truth from a unique perspective, truth itself is absolute.

and

This is what happens in the world which is mere Nature. But it does not happen in the world of civilization which is ours. Civilization is not 'just there,' it is not self-supporting. It is artificial...if you want to make use of the advantages of civilization, but are not prepared to concern yourself with the upholding of civilization -- you are done.

and especially:

the gravest danger that today threatens civilization: State intervention -- the absorption of all spontaneous social effort by the State, that is to say, of spontaneous historical action, which in the long run sustains, nourishes, and impels human destinies...This is what State intervention leads to: the peel are converted into fuel to feed the mere machine which is the State. The skeleton eats up the flesh around it. The scaffolding becomes the owner and tenant of the house.

Apparently Rand copied a section of a chapter of Ortega's book, The Revolt of the Masses, into her journal entry of May 16th, 1934 and in this review, Gregory Johnson is quoted as saying:

Gregory Johnson: "It is seldom possible to make an airtight case for intellectual influence, but if Rand first conceived the moral project of "The Fountainhead" (and all of her subsequent works) while writing her journal entries for May 15 and 16, 1934, she did so in dialogue with Ortega."

My interest is purely practical.

Ortega y Gasset was and is a well known man here in Spain, and to the extent that his thinking is aligned with or influenced even that of Rand, I may have a good conversation starter, not to mention lots of reading to do!

Thanks for any insights anybody can offer.

David

Post 1

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 8:35am

David,

If you have access to Letters of Ayn Rand you may find this philosopher referenced. I'm not at home so I can't check to be certain, but the name sounds familiar from reading Letters a couple times.

Jason

Post 2

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 9:08am

David,

Whether or not Ortega y Gasset directly influenced Rand is not important. You can still use him to spread interest in Rand since they share -some- ideas.

In general, an excellent way to spread radical new ideas in an alien culture is to point out those areas where it has similarities with something they already respect, understand, or are somewhat familiar with.

This is very different from how Objectivists try to spread their ideas often by being shocking and sensational but incomprehensible, alien, and baffling (see too many ARI op eds currently on their website for what not to do in this regard.)

Building on intellectual parallels or on whatever is common ground is how Christianity spread as an offshoot of Judaism in the synagogues, and then Islam in a part of the world which had already become comfortable with monotheism. (Or how the Enlightenment spread on a base of classical and Greek ideas which had previously been rediscovered and learned.)

I'm not suggesting one sell Objectivism as an offshoot of "Gassetism". But one can start an essay by discussing good points of Gasset and applicability to today. And then segue into "another thinker takes these ideas and goes even further..."

Might be a great opening wedge into the entire Spanish-speaking world? Is he respected as well in Latin America, Mexico? Just thinking out loud.

--Philip Coates

Post 3

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 9:13am

Phil writes:

In general, an excellent way to spread radical new ideas in an alien culture is to point out those areas where it has similarities with something they already respect, understand, or are somewhat familiar with.

This is very different from how Objectivists try to spread their ideas often by being shocking and sensational but incomprehensible, alien, and baffling (see too many ARI op eds currently on their website for what not to do in this regard.)

A good point about salesmanship, Phil. One guy who knows how to do this is Chris Sciabarra, who has excelled in putting Rand into the context of wider philosophical traditions. Even when I disagree with Chris in his specific claims about Rand's intellectual pedigree (and I often do), I commend him for the general approach, which has helped give Rand more attention in mainstream intellectual and philosophical circles.

Post 4

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 9:17am

David,

I am doing a presentation on "Rand and Ortega" at the TOC Summer Seminar. I have been doing a ton of reading of Ortega. In addition to the notes for The Fountainhead Rand said the following when she was writing character sketches for Atlas Shrugged

The philosopher. A kind of Ortega y Gasset--vaguely. A kind of Aristotle if he came back to life today. Or even Thomas Aquinas.

So Rand thought so highly of him that he was a vague model for Hugh Akston. Gregory Johnson's three part series about Rand and Ortega in The Daily Objectivist was very good. There are some interesting parallels. I hope to go beyond Johnson's work--explore the parallels and contrast the philosophies.

I don't want to go into a lot of detail about the presentation because I'm still working on it. I've read 16 of Ortega's books and have three more to go. I do find his philosophy interesting and think you might too. For a brief summary of his philosophy I'd start with "History as a System" in the book of the same name. If you read Spanish (and I don't) I'd try to read him in the original. One of the major criticisms by his enemies was that Ortega wrote so well that he must be lying. His writing is considered by some to be the most beautiful in Castilian Spanish. He also reads elegantly in English translation. The book that led me to reading Ortega is What is Philosophy? which I also recommend highly.

I do think that his stature is such that this would be a great starting point for conversation in Spain. I will give away a bit of what I will be saying. Ortega was trained as a neo-Kantian. (Yes the neo version of the most evil man how ever lived.) He relied heavily on Descartes who is about as far from the Objectivist position as you can imagine. He was considered by some to be an existentialist. Yet at the end of the day his philosophy comes back around to positions similar in some ways to Objectivism.

At any rate I would be happy to answer any specific questions. If you can't come to the TOC Summer Seminar you will be able to get a tape.

Bill

Post 5

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 9:30am

While I was composing my response Phil and Robert weighed in. Phil asked whether Ortega is respected in Latin America and Mexico. He is and was very much respected there. Ortega was on the losing side in the Spanish Revolution. When Franco came to power he went into exile. He lived and lectured in Latin America, and in Portugal.
I agree with Phil and Robert's comments. I also think that serious scholars who want to do work on a philosopher who is acceptable, but not completely alien to Objectivist ideals could consider working on Ortega. There is a gold mine of possible thesis, paper and dissertation topics. You would need to read Spanish, and for some of the most interesting debates--his refutation of Heidegger--German would be nice. I'm just plugging away on them in translation for fun but there is a wealth of possibilities for the serious scholar.

Bill

Post 6

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 11:26am

Thanks Jason, Philip, Robert and Bill for your detailed responses. Very helpful.

Jason:

I checked Letters of Ayn Rand, but there is no reference. I think you might mean Journals, which I don't have, unfortunately.

Philip:

yes that is exactly where I was coming from. I have been floundering trying to sell Rand to Spaniards as it just sounds so, well, radical - and if you are going to put yourself out there, you need to be able to back yourself up damned well. Although my Spanish is fairly fluent now, I still get stuck on a political/philosophical level, so it is great to be able to discuss somebody like Ortega who they may already know to some extent.

Robert:

I will check Sciabarra's writing, though my Polish really isn't that great.

Bill:

That's great! I will pick up a title or two in Spanish to get me started- will be useful to develop my vocabulary. He does write very well, so it will be a pleasure. I won't get to the TOC conference, but I will definitely order the tape once available.

Let me know if I can be of any assistance to you in interpreting or translating Spanish texts to English, by the way.

Thanks!
David

Post 7

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 11:58am